


Dark Arts and Demons

by TtotheCofA



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Arthur does something stupid, Established OT3, F/M, M/M, some of the tags are for much later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-06-07 06:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 28,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6791929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TtotheCofA/pseuds/TtotheCofA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You should always leave black magic to the professionals...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Voice in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I started posting this on tumblr, but I figured it was high time we made the jump back to some kind of fanfiction archive.
> 
> Take it all with a grain of salt - most of this was written over two years ago.

It had been four months since Lewis had rejoined the Mystery Skulls, give or take a week.

Things had been tense, at first. Lewis was still understandably pissed off about being murdered, and refused to listen to Arthur's pleas. This time, however, when Vivi had leapt to his defense, Lewis had backed off much quicker, and Arthur hadn't moved to pull her away. There had been lots of screaming and crying and fire, but by the end of the night, a miracle happened.

Lewis forgave him.

They'd stayed the night in that mansion, and when they'd set out in the morning, it was as if nothing bad had ever happened between them. Lewis was there. Lewis was happy. Vivi was happy. The gang was together again, and they swore up and down that there would be no more bad blood amongst them. Arthur swore, too.

And that was the biggest lie he'd ever told.

Ever since that horrific night in the cave, he'd known that something had followed him. It was that little voice that whispered in the back of his mind, growing in strength until it was near shouting at him in the wee hours of the night. ' _Murderer_ ', it would say. ' _Betrayer_ '. ' _Useless waste of space_ '. The first year after the incident was the hardest to survive, for sleep aids and painkillers did little to silence the whispers. Arthur went to some dark places that year….but he survived.

Even at his lowest points, Vivi and Mystery were always there, waiting to pull him back up (even though Vivi didn't understand the full reasons behind her best friend's spirals). That first year passed, and Arthur realized that, if the voice wouldn't go away, then he could learn to live with it. He learned what old hobbies would drown out the whispering, and perfected the art of avoiding conversations about his arm….and Lewis. He got pretty good at ignoring the hateful words.

But then the van broke down in front of that purple mansion, and everything changed.

The voice came back even stronger than ever, hissing in his ears between conversations and beneath music. ' _They'll never forgive you_ ' the voice would claim. ' _I'm still here, and you'll never be rid of me_ '. All of his old methods for drowning out the words seemed to suddenly stop working, but instead of seeking help, Arthur kept this to himself. 

He had never told Vivi that his depression after Lewis' death was something far more supernatural. He had never even confided in Mystery, and how could he even begin to explain to Lewis? Late at night, as the gang lay sprawled out in the back of the van - just like old times - Arthur lay awake, staring at the roof and trying to argue with that dammed voice.

' _He forgave me. Lewis forgave me_ '. He repeated the words like a mantra, over and over until the sun rose. ' _I never wanted to hurt Lewis_ ' 

' _And yet you let me_ ' The voice laughed at him one night. Arthur sucked in a breath, and his blood ran cold. ' _You couldn't keep me out of your weak little mind, and your friend suffered for it_ ' The vision in his left eye slowly began to blur, and Arthur let out a quiet whine, reaching up to cover it with the wrong hand, and waving his stump instead. Catching himself, the young man reached up with his right hand and rubbed frantically at his eye. When he stopped, his vision was black, and colorful spots danced before it….but all the detail faded back in eventually, and nothing was amiss.

"….I-I must be sleep deprived." Arthur whispered out loud, letting his arm drop back to the mattress. He couldn't speak too loudly, as Vivi and Mystery were sleeping on the inflatable mattress right beside him, and Lewis was stretched across the front seat, doing whatever thing ghosts did to 'sleep'. But he needed to hear his own voice; something to break the routine of Thought vs. Thought. Maybe that would-

' _Still here_ ' The voice cackled. Arthur reached up and rubbed his right hand over his mouth, suddenly feeling sick. The voice hadn't been this hard to drown out since…since the hospital. ' _There's no getting rid of me, boy_ ' The voice hissed. ' _You don't have the brains for that sort of ritual. Little miss Vivian is the one with the magic touch, not you…._ ' A yawn from behind him had finally silenced the voice, and Arthur went stiff as a board. Vivi stretched in her sleep and rolled over, blinking tiredly at the blond across from her before squinting to see him.

"Artie…?" Vivi yawned again. "What're you doing up?" Arthur didn't turn over, using the excuse of Mystery curled against his back. 

"Nothing, Viv, nothing…" He poured all of the false calm and confidence he could into those few words. He had dealt with this on his own before, and he could do it again now. "Go back to sleep. We need to get up early." This seemed to work, and Vivi dropped her head back down to the pillow, out like a light only a few moments later. Arthur lay awake the rest of the night.

And the voice was suspiciously silent.


	2. Hitting the Books

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Made some minor edits from the original Tumblr post - mostly just fixes in flow and grammar._

Arthur would be the first to admit that he was not a brave man.

His default response to danger was 'RUN', and he was always the first one to scream at even the slightest of spooks and jump scares. It was humiliating, but it was something that he'd just never been able to overcome. 

Lewis and Vivi and Mystery had never cared, though; for every shot of adrenaline that made his heart race on an investigation, one of them was there with an friendly lick, reassuring words and a protective hug. They had always been there for him, and there had been a time when he'd trusted them with nearly anything. Arthur liked to think that he still would.

But this…this wasn't something he could bear to explain to them. The fact that the monster that had hurt them all so much was still within him; the fact that he'd still been a threat to Vivi, and Mystery. Every time he tried to think of a way to breach the subject, he'd imagine distrust in Vivi's eyes, and fury in Lewis'…and a cold wave of fear would shut him down. No, his friends could never know about this.

Arthur would have to deal with this on his own.

The voice had been right about one thing, however. Arthur did not possess the kind of supernatural knowledge he needed to fix this. Vivi had countless books on the subject, but leafing through them without her knowledge in the crowded confines of the van was out of the question…Both she and Lewis would know right away that something was going on if Arthur had suddenly expressed an interest in browsing Vivi's collection, and he was a terrible, terrible liar; if Vivi asked straight to his face, he'd have no choice but to come clean, and tell her everything.

So Arthur waited until the gang stopped at a motel after investigating an abandoned factory, and claimed that he needed to stay up and fix his arm. Worn out from a night of chasing away phantoms, neither Vivi nor Lewis had protested, and they had left Arthur in the van on the promise that he'd come inside and sleep as soon as he was done. Arthur had watched until their door had shut, and then he'd quickly locked the van's doors and begun raiding Vivi's boxes of books.

His 'research' quickly led him nowhere, however. Every book he opened seemed to dance around the actual details of exorcisms, or only talked about them in theory. One book claimed that demons could be 'invited' into one's body by the commitment of a sin - this knowledge only dredged up a horrible feeling in Arthur's gut, but he swallowed it down and kept reading. He already knew he'd made that mistake, now he needed to know how to fix it. The book, thankfully, did continue on to say that the demons could be removed (specifically only by the person who'd 'invited' them in, but Arthur already planned on doing this solo anyway).

Unfortunately, it did not specify 'how'. Frustrated, Arthur threw the book down on the floor of the van, and leaned over to get the next one from the box. To his dismay, he found that there was only one book left - an old, leather-bound volume that looked like it was falling apart at the seams. Vivi must have picked it up at a thrift store or something. Swallowing back a knot of hopelessness, Arthur picked up this last book - his last shot of fixing this tonight - and cracked it open.

Almost as soon as he'd opened the book, Arthur's mood brightened up. The aged pages looked like something out of a movie, from their detailed illuminations to the swirling, almost handwritten text. There were even charts, and lists of ingredients needed to make these rituals happen, and while it was a little hard to read, it wasn't impossible. Before Arthur realized, it was 3am, and he'd read the thing cover to cover. 

Even better, he'd found exactly what he needed.

Arthur finally blinked, and the sudden heaviness of his eyelids hit him like a ton of bricks. Leaning back against the wall of the van, he dropped the book into his lap and reached up his left hand to rub his face. The cold metal helped to wake him back up, and he carded his hair back from his face with a quiet sigh. It would take him a trip or two to get together all the things he'd need…but he couldn't do any more tonight. 

He had to be back in the motel room when Vivi and Lewis woke up, or they'd get suspicious. So, Arthur set the one book aside, and tiredly stacked the rest of Vivi's collection back in its box. He pushed the box back to its hiding place in the van, and then straightened up with a groan. The gang usually woke up around eight - seven was pushing it - so if he sneaked back now, he could still get at least four hours of sleep. Five, if he was lucky.

With the old book tucked under his arm, Arthur crept out of the van and keyed himself in to the group's motel room. Inside, Vivi was already fast asleep, and Mystery was sprawled out on the bed beside her. Arthur closed the door as quietly as he could, and thought he was in the clear….until a voice spoke up from behind him, and he realized he'd forgotten about the last member of their group.

"How's your arm, Arthur?" Lewis asked from where he sat, wide awake, on the room's pull out couch. Arthur would later deny the undignified squeaking sound he made, and spun around to face the pink specter, scrambling to hide the book behind his back. He was too close to be found out now.

"Oh! Uh…i-it's fine, it's fine…" Arthur forced the calmest smile he could manage, despite his racing heart. The sight of his old friend's skeletal form still sent shivers down his spine, as four months wasn't nearly long enough to forget how much that was his fault. "I-I just got c-caught up in my work…" Arthur laughed nervously, praying that the room was dark enough for his discomfort to be ignored. "I'm sorry if I woke you." Lewis' expression shifted, but Arthur couldn't quite read it. His friend's lack of facial features made that a bit difficult.

"You didn't wake me." Lewis replied. "I've been up for a while. I don't need to sleep much anymore." Arthur swallowed audibly and suddenly looked uncomfortable, even in the dim light. "You should get to bed, buddy," Lewis continued, standing up and coming over to pat Arthur's shoulder good-naturedly. He didn't seem to notice how his friend flinched at the touch. "Vivi thinks there may be more to discover back at that factory, so she wants to go back in the morning."

"Oh, great…" He couldn't have sounded less enthusiastic if he tried, and Arthur shrugged out of Lewis' hold, turning away and clutching the book to his chest. "I'd better get to sleep, then." Arthur quickly threw the book under his pillow as he hopped into bed, not bothering to change into pajamas, or even to remove his metal arm. Painfully aware of this plan's shortcomings, Arthur threw out a quick 'goodnight Lewis!' and buried his face in the pillow.

He held his breath until he couldn't bear the warm, recycled carbon dioxide anymore, and when he turned his head, Lewis had - thankfully - gone to sleep (or, at least, he was resting). Arthur took a long, deep breath, and rolled over onto his back. He usually took off his arm before he slept, or else he had nightmares. But he'd spent so many nights up late, or not sleeping at all, and he just felt so tired now….surely he could manage to sleep for for just a few hours?

Closing his eyes, Arthur tuned out the usual demonic whispers, and let his mind drift off to sleep.


	3. Quite A Nasty Wake Up Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Hah! Remember back when we all thought Mystery was Arthur's dog? :D_
> 
>  
> 
> _....no? Just me? Oh...._
> 
>  
> 
> _Well. :/ I just dated myself, then._

It was nearing 6am when a panicked sound broke the silence of the room.

Arthur's hands clawed at the bed sheets in a futile search for purchase as he thrashed around, hissing breath through his teeth as if he'd suddenly had the wind knocked from his lungs. A cold sweat covered his body, and goosebumps pricked his skin. But his eyes remained shut tight against whatever torment was in his head, as if he feared opening them to find the same horror in front of his eyes as behind them…

The short, jagged gasping woke Mystery, and in his rush to jump across to the blond's bed, the little dog kicked Vivi in the back, and woke her. The bluenette sat up slowly at first, rubbing her face and feeling around for her glasses. But after a minute, she suddenly realized what those strange noises were, and her eyes snapped open.

"Arthur!" Vivi's shout jerked Lewis out of his slumber, and the ghost flickered awake just in time to see the girl nearly fall out of bed in a scramble to get across the room. Arthur was still asleep, somehow, but his hands were clawing so deeply at the motel bed sheets that fibers were tearing away with his nails, and he cried out a strangled sob of some word they couldn't understand; fighting with some specter they couldn't see.

"Arthur!" Vivi repeated as Lewis came to float over her shoulder, staring with wide eyes. "Arthur, wake up! You're dreaming!" Her words didn't seem to have an affect, at first, and Mystery moved to straddle Arthur, frantically licking away the tears streaming down his face. When this didn't work, either, the dog growled before starting to bark. The loud sound immediately jogged Arthur back to wakefulness, and his eyes snapped open in a blind panic.

The first thing he saw was a skeletal Lewis, and Arthur made a horrible choking sound before Vivi leaned over and blocked his vision.

Arthur latched onto her arms as Vivi leaned over him, still sucking air as she whispered quiet words. This had happened before, Lewis realized with a sinking heart. Mystery lay down on his master's legs, providing a comforting weight as Vivi counted through the steps of deep breathing. Within five minutes, the room was quiet again, and Arthur was breathing normally. It was ten minutes before he let go of her arms, whimpered apologies on his breath.

"Arthur…" Vivi bit her lip mid-sentence, and shook her head. Instead, she looked down and lightly shoved the man's metal arm. "…Arthur, you left your arm on again." Vivi muttered. "You know that gives you nightmares."

"I-I know…I know…" The sob wasn't gone from Arthur's voice, and Lewis' heart turned a sympathetic shade of blue. "I just f-….I just forgot." Arthur reached up with his right hand and rubbed his face, not so discreetly trying to hide the tears dripping to the sheets. "I stayed up to late r-uh, f-fixing my arm, yeah…" He sniffed. "I was so tired, I just dropped off to sleep." He looked up at his friends, and gave them the flimsiest mockery of a smile Lewis had ever seen. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to wake you guys."

"That's okay," Vivi shrugged and sat on the edge of the bed beside her friend. "An earlier start just gives us more time in the day, right?" Arthur's smile became less forced, and Mystery began to wag his tail. Vivi smiled at this bit of progress, and looked around the group hopefully. "Who's up for breakfast, huh?" 

Mystery barked excitedly and sprang off the bed, and Arthur actually laughed. The tension that had built up in the small room finally began to bleed away, little by little. Vivi jumped up and ran to get dressed, and Arthur sat up in bed. He must have thought Lewis wasn't looking, for he looked at his metal arm, and a sorrowful look came to his face. The specter narrowed his eyes sockets in concern, but for the moment, he held his proverbial tongue. 

Things had been…rocky…between him and Arthur ever since Lewis had returned. Lewis had tried to patch things up several times, but the subject of Lewis' death and the cave - and especially the force that had possessed him - always sent Arthur into a panic, and after the first two months, Lewis had given up trying to talk about it. He knew they had to eventually; a misunderstanding had nearly led him to kill Arthur for something that wasn't his fault, and he never wanted that to happen again.

But now was not the time to try. Whatever night terror Arthur had suffered had left him clearly shaken, and Lewis didn't want to make things worse. Projecting a human form, the ghost silently offered his best friend a reassuring smile, and to his credit, Arthur tried to return it. Vivi - fully dressed, now, and wide awake - swung by and grabbed his arm, pulling the ghost towards the door.

"Arthur, stay here with Mystery, okay?" The bluenette grinned as she shoved Lewis out the door - an easy feat, when the ghost didn't remember to keep his feet on the ground. "Lewis and I will grab something from the dinner down the road, and bring it back here." Arthur didn't feel much like eating, but Vivi sounded so excited, he just couldn't bring himself to turn her down, so he just smiled and nodded.

As the door swung shut, Mystery hopped back onto the bed and came to sit beside the blond, ears perked up inquisitively. Arthur started to reach up with his left hand, and then paused, and lowered it to reach out with his right instead to scratch the dog's ears. Mystery's thumping tail coaxed another laugh out of him, and Arthur shifted to get up out of bed. He'd slept in his clothes from the day before, and he could still feel the grime and sweat from the day before. If he hurried, he could manage a quick shower and change before Lewis and Vivi returned.

After watching Arthur shuffle into the bathroom, Mystery cast a suspicious glance at the pillow on the bed, and stuck his nose under it while the bathroom door was shut. His nose bumped into something dusty and leather, and Mystery flipped the pillow to the floor to reveal the old book beneath it. The canine cocked his head to one side in confusion. One of Vivi's supernatural reference books? What was Arthur doing with that, and….

Why was he hiding it?


	4. Off the Factory Floor pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More minor grammar and slight continuity changes from the Tumblr version.

Despite his earlier reservations about food, when Vivi and Lewis returned with a full take-out box of the local diner's Early Bird special, Arthur was hungry enough to lick the left over syrup off the Styrofoam.

Lewis laughed at him and Vivi scolded his manners, but there was no real malice behind either action. The grim mood of the morning was quickly forgotten, and conversation turned to the abandoned factory they'd investigated the night before.

Vivi swore that there had to be more to the mystery of that place than just one or two weak little phantoms rattling chains and casting odd shadows. The story had wrapped up too neatly; every loose end had been tied in just one night, and something about that just didn't sit right with the girl. Arthur had to admit it seemed suspicious, even to him. None of their mysteries ever ended so cleanly, and even Lewis agreed that it couldn't hurt to go back and take another look around.

After cleaning up the mess that was breakfast, the gang piled into the van and headed back to the investigation site. For once, Arthur found himself sitting in the front seat; Lewis was behind the wheel, Vivi sat between them, and Mystery stretched out in the back of the van. It was almost as if nothing had ever changed between them as they drove. Arthur surfed the radio stations until he found something he liked, Lewis challenged him for musical control to find something he liked, and Vivi just sang along with whatever played. The voice was quieter that morning than it had been for a while. 

In fact, it was almost completely silent until the van pulled into the old factory parking lot. 

Arthur ignored the whispers as they started up again; he drowned them out by slamming the back doors of the van a little too hard, and testing his radio at full volume. Vivi and Lewis looked at him strangely, but it frustrated the voice, and made it fall into a huffy silence once again, so Arthur just shrugged at his friends' stares and played dumb.

They entered the factory in broad daylight, this time, when there would be little chance of misidentification of paranormal forces due to poor lighting conditions. Lewis claimed he could still feel something strange in the area - he'd said the same thing the day before, when they'd first investigated the factory. Unfortunately, he couldn't pinpoint where the feeling was coming from, so the gang was left to search the factory on foot.

Flashlight in hand - because even though the factory had a lot of wide windows, it wasn't a well-lit place - Arthur took Mystery and split off from Lewis and Vivi to search the floor. They found only a little evidence of last night's escapades, at first…singed concrete where Lewis' fire struck, out of place chains and tools scattered wherever the phantoms had dropped them in shock and fright….nothing to indicate any new activity since the-

"What are you planning?" The sudden voice broke the silence sharply enough for Arthur to jump, and he looked down at Mystery in surprise. The canine's ability to speak wasn't unknown to the gang (far from it), but Arthur had been almost certain he'd gotten off scott-free last night, so the question came out of the blue. 

"…what, what do you mean, 'what am I planning'?" Arthur was quick to look away and continue their search. He had always been a terrible liar, and though it was a little easier to lie to Mystery than, say, to Vivi, he didn't want to push his luck today. The dog pulled his ears back in a clearly disbelieving gesture.

"Allow me to clarify," Mystery paused and sat down, lifting one paw to adjust the spectacles sitting on his nose. "You took one of Vivi's paranormal research books and were hiding it under your pillow. I found it this morning." Arthur's shoulders tensed guiltily, but he didn't turn to face his friend. "Arthur, I don't mean to call your intelligence into question, but you've never shown an interest in those books before, and then you go and pick up the most dangerous one." Mystery growled somewhat. "I'll ask again. What are you planning?"

"I'm not planning anything!" Arthur insisted in an outright, baldfaced lie. "After Lew-…." He was starting to yell already, and the hitch that came to his voice at Lewis' name provided a convenient excuse to stop and drop back down to a whisper, though the echo of his half-shout still bounced around the factory far longer than he'd have liked. 

"…..after Lewis…" The words were hissed through his teeth. "The paranormal wasn't just a theory, or something I could just leave to you and Vivi, okay? It was very, very real, and I felt…v-vulnerable." The words came easier, now, the more truth they spoke, and the emotion in his voice seemed to help sway Mystery, who's own expression softened. 

"Look, I'm going to put the book back before Vivi even notices." Arthur insisted, still keeping his back to the dog in an effort to hide the cold sweat on his face. He hated lying to his friends. "I just though it was about time I tried to learn more about the spooky shit that's out there.

"I mean…." He shrugged weakly. "I probably still can't do anything about them…not like Lewis can…" Arthur sighed. "But at least I might see it coming next time…" Mystery's ears drooped with a whine, and the dog found himself somewhat regretful that he brought up the subject. Standing up, he padded up to Arthur and sat down by his leg, reaching up to put one paw on the boy's him in a reassuring manner. 

"Arthur, I just want you to be careful." The dog sighed. "I'm not exaggerating when I say some of the information in those books can be very dangerous if utilized improperly." Arthur smiled weakly at his friend and reached down to pat his ears.

"Mystery, I swear I'll be careful…" He promised. "Now, let's get going…." Arthur rolled his shoulders and walked forward again, stuffing his free (prosthetic) hand into his vest pocket. "We haven't found anything out this way, so we should probably catch up with Vivi and Lewis soon." Mystery followed after him silently, figuring the conversation had gone as well as it possibly could. 

Neither one of them noticed a shadow against the wall becoming unnaturally dark. It took on a vaguely humanoid shape for a moment before darting away down the wall, in the direction the investigators had come. It disappeared again into the shadows, and the factory fell silent.


	5. Off the Factory Floor pt.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Just a few more continuity changes from Tumblr._

After their initial sweep of the building turned up nothing new, the gang split up again, and all four members went off on their own. 

The night before, Arthur had literally been shaking in his sneakers as he'd shuffled about the concrete hallways. But in the daylight, the factory wasn't nearly as frightening. Eerie shapes that had unnerved him before turned out to be just sloppy stacks of bricks, broken wheelbarrows, and other debris left over from the long-abandoned demolition project. Nothing to be afraid of now, and certainly nothing supernatural.

Turning a corner, the blond suddenly stopped, and took a half step back. The hallway that stretched before him hadn't changed _at all_ in the daylight. It was every bit as horror-movie rip off as it had been at night - all cracked concrete and peeling plaster, with graffiti scrawled by the brave and the stupid lining the long walk down to the single room at the end. Arthur glanced back the way he'd come, briefly considering just skipping this section and sticking to the better lit areas. But if Vivi found out he missed a spot, he'd never hear the end of it…

B-besides, Lewis had chased off all the phantoms, hadn't he?

Arthur rolled his flashlight between his palms for a moment before sighing, and walking forward. He didn't need the flashlight right now, but it couldn't hurt to have it at the ready…though, it was pretty useless as a weapon if any of last night's phantoms had, in fact, stuck around. At the very least, he might be able to stun the creatures if worse came to worse. A few seconds distraction was all he'd need to book it to the nearest exit.

The hallway finally dead ended with an old metal door, and Arthur reached out to half-heartedly prod the rusty lock. The old metal promptly snapped, and the lock fell to the floor with a painfully loud 'CLANG'. Arthur flinch, and then grimaced as the heavy door started to creak, falling open into the room beyond with the sheer force of gravity. The blond let his hand drop and leaned his head back in resigned frustration, knowing he had to at least look in the room, now. 

With one deep, preparatory breath, Arthur armed himself with his flashlight and pushed open the door.

The room beyond was nearly a perfect square, and the floor was relatively clear of debris. It was a nice, open place, with no windows, and no dangerous pits in the floor…..and there was plenty of room for a ritual circle, to boot. Arthur flicked his flashlight on and shined it around, the wheels turning in his mind. This deep into the building, any strange sounds or lights would be hidden from the nearby town….

For a moment, he wondered if he could really go through with this. Him, Arthur, doing black magic? Like, actual dangerous, forbidden, you-could-lose-your-soul magic? If you'd asked him to do this a year ago, he'd have laughed at you.

..........

But then, a year ago, he didn't have a dead best friend and a demon living in his head.

Arthur let the flashlight beam fall to the floor and reached up to rub his right hand across his mouth nervously. Okay, if he was going to make this work, he'd need to get things together quickly. He had his 'directions' (the book) and now he had a location….he'd even gotten the cliched 'this-is-a-bad-idea-don't-do-it' warning (from Mystery). All he needed now was the actual components of the ritual.

He could come back after the gang fell asleep for the night, set up everything, and - if Lady Luck would favor him just this once - he could be free and clear by morning. He could rejoin Lewis and Vivi, everyone would be happy, and neither of them would ever have to know of the monster Arthur had been unwillingly harboring ever since that god forsaken night in the cave. There was a high chance that he might just kill himself from fucking around with these 'dark forces', but that might kill the demon, too.

And Arthur was okay with that.

Coming back from his thoughts, Arthur shook his head and turned to go back into the factory proper. If he took too long in his search of the place, Lewis, Vivi or Mystery might come looking for him. Mystery was already suspicious of his reading material. If the canine caught Arthur sizing up a windowless space like that, he might actually guess what the man was planning.

If that happened, he'd get a lecture on the safe practice of black magic and get his cover blown with the others. He was taking enough of a risk just traveling with his friends, with this monster still stuck in his head. Arthur wasn't about to risk them actually getting involved.

As he turned down yet another corner in the twisting hallways, eyes still glued to the floor in absent thought, his vision went dark; Arthur felt a sudden, bone-deep chill, and a sensation not unlike to trying to breathe in a vacuum. The feeling passed just as suddenly as it came, and Arthur gasped, dropping his flashlight with a clatter and reaching up a hand to claw at his heart. 

"Oh, Arthur, there you are!" Lewis - still wearing his human projection - smiled. He seemed unperturbed by the fact that his best friend had just walked right through him. "Vivi and I were looking for you." The specter bent down and picked up Arthur's discarded flashlight, handing it back with a bright grin that Arthur just couldn't match. "We're going to set up some cameras and let them sit overnight. If there are any straggler phantoms, they may not be as wary of the cameras as they are of us."

"Y-yeah, sure…" Arthur gasped, his heart still racing. "S-sounds like a plan…" He snatched back his flashlight and turned it off, sticking it down in his pocket and dusting any possible ghostly reside off of his vest. "G-geez, man, I walked right through you! Didn't….didn't that feel weird?" Lewis blinked, and then shrugged.

"A little, yeah," He admitted. "Sort of like something knocked the wind out of me, for a second or two." The spirit looked at Arthur with another grin. Boy, he was cheerful today. "But it passed pretty quick, so no harm done, right?"

"….r-right." Arthur forced a smile. "No harm done." A part of him was proud of Lewis for apparently adjusting so quickly to the finer points of being a ghost. A larger part of him felt kind of sick. Lewis would never have needed to adjust if not for him…

"Come on," Lewis' hand thumping against his back in a friendly (and slightly painful) manner jerked Arthur out of his darkening thoughts. "Vivi's waiting for us." With the large hand still at his back, Arthur had no choice but to follow along, and be quietly grateful that Lewis hadn't come looking for him any sooner.


	6. Into the Night

They set up a few cameras throughout the factory before heading back to the motel. 

None of them had found any sign of phantoms still hanging around the building, but Lewis still swore that he felt something off about the place. Some small part of Arthur wondered if the ghost could 'sense' the demon that was in his head, and the resulting sense of dread kept him quite the entire drive back. It kept the voice quiet, too, and for that, Arthur was at least grateful.

They needed to stay for at least one more night, to give the cameras time to record any paranormal evidence that may have been actively avoiding human contact, so the gang settled in for lunch. Their supplies were a bit low from the past month on the road, so lunch was more take-out from that same diner down the street. They ate in their room to avoid the usual crazy stares they got when discussing their cases in public, and Arthur was quieter than usual. 

Granted, he never had much to contribute to these discussions, but this time, he kept even his usual sarcastic quips to a minimum. Mystery gave him the occasional concerned glance, but Arthur was too buried in his thoughts (and all the leftover fries) to notice. 

He'd sneaked a few more glances at Vivi's book when the others had gone to get lunch, and had learned more about what he'd need to do that night. Most of what he needed the gang already traveled with; crystals for focusing and balancing energy, incense for cleansing spaces, etc. All of it was Vivi's, and he'd have to 'borrow' them without her noticing. Almost all of their cases since Lewis' return hadn't utilized anything but their usual technology and Lewis' new fire powers, so the bluenette shouldn't have noticed anything missing until long after Arthur was done.

Finally, he need a ritual circle - the book said he could just envision one instead of physically drawing one, but Arthur wasn't about to trust his success to his imagination - to contain everything, and a safe place to do the casting. That's where the hidden room in the factory came into play. But first, Arthur would have to wait until the others fell asleep…if he disappeared in the middle of the day, they'd get suspicious, and probably follow him. Then all this planning would go to waste…

The gang spent the rest of the day in their motel room, watching TV and cracking bad jokes like they had in the old days. The voice in his head was silent so long as the others were talking, and a few times, Arthur caught himself wondering if he could just keep going like this; spare himself the risk and effort of attempting something he knew was reckless and stupid, and just keep drowning out the voice with moments like these.

But each time the thought crossed his mind, the voice would pipe up with its same old tricks. ' _You will never be safe while I'm here._ ' It would whisper, ' _They will never be safe while I am here'_ and Arthur's resolve would return.

When Vivi finally began to yawn every third word, Lewis suggested they all get to bed, and an excited, nervous knot tied itself in Arthur's stomach. He changed into his pajamas as Vivi changed in the bathroom, and even removed his prosthetic arm, just to keep up appearances for Lewis. The ghost watched in a strange silence as the blond detached the robotic limb at its connection point, and set it aside lie any other article of clothing. For a moment, Lewis looked as if he wanted to say something….but in the end, he just closed his mouth and looked away; another missed opportunity.

The gang settled down and went to bed around 10pm, and Arthur feigned sleep for about an hour, until he was sure Vivi was breathing too deeply to be awake, and that the glow of Lewis' flames had dimmed enough for him to be 'resting'. Slowly, Arthur pushed himself up with his good arm and eased himself out from under the covers. He picked up his arm from the nightstand beside him, and reattached it as quickly and as quietly as he could manage.

Once he had both limbs to work with, Arthur climbed out of bed and grabbed his clothes, hurriedly changing out of his pajamas. Nobody performed black magic in their PJs, after all.

He grabbed the keys to the van - he couldn't carry all the stuff he'd need the four miles it was to the factory - and pulled Vivi's book out from beneath his pillow before heading for the door. With one foot across the threshold, however, Arthur stopped, and turned to look back - at Vivi sprawled out on the bed, and Lewis stretched out on the couch (technically floating over the couch but) - and tried to swallow down the voidish feeling in his gut that told him this was the last time he would see them alive.

He didn't see the dark shape that darted past his leg and through the open door, and quietly let the motel room before he could change his mind.

..........

Arthur usually loved music.

On long road trips, he always had the radio playing, and when he couldn't have the radio, he was humming, tapping - anything to make noise and keep a beat. But as he drove the dark, empty road out of town, Arthur drove in silence. He couldn't bring himself to touch the radio dial. It felt….wrong…to be listening to music in light of what he was about to attempt. Like it was sacrilegious, or something.

As he pulled into the factory parking lot, and slowed the van to a stop, Arthur felt his heart began to race. The leather of the steering wheel creaked almost ominously beneath his hands, gripping tight enough to turn the knuckles of his right hand white. His stomach was starting to twist, and breathing was suddenly something he had to think to do.

This was it. He fixed it all tonight, one way or another.

Arthur took a long, shaky deep breath, and as he exhaled, let go of the steering wheel. He opened the door and stepped down from the van, shivering in the night air, and walked around to the back. He'd found a few spare minutes between movies to run out earlier in the day and pack everything he'd need for the ritual into one bag that he could hide amongst all the other clutter they kept. He just needed to grab it…but when he opened the back doors to the van, Arthur found himself confronted by a familiar pair of paws instead.

"I thought," Mystery growled from where he sat on top of Arthur's pre-packed bag. "You said you weren't planning anything?"


	7. Caught in the Act

Arthur's face turned almost as white as Mystery's fur, and the blond stumbled over his answer.

"M-Mystery, you don't understand-"

"No, Arthur, I don't understand." The canine snapped. "Please, enlighten me as to what you're doing, bringing artifacts of the occult and a book on exorcism to a haunted, isolated location." There was no easy way to retort this statement, and Mystery glared knowingly as Arthur sank back on his heels. "Did I not tell you - earlier today, in fact - how dangerous black magic is?!" Arthur sank back a little further, and his fingers began to tap against one another in a telltale nervous gesture.

"Y-yes…yes you did," The blond admitted shamefully. "And I know it is." He shuddered. "I've heard all of Vivi's 'black-magic-gone-wrong' horror stories. We all have. B-but this is different." Arthur insisted, despite Mystery's unbelieving stare. "I have to do this. It will fix everything-"

"And just what is 'everything'?" Mystery broke in, interrupting Arthur before he could get going. "Lewis is here with us, Vivi has her memory back…" The dog flattened one ear. "If you're intending to retrieve your arm, you should know damn well from all that anime you watch that such attempts never end well." Arthur's face turned red.

"This is NOT Fullmetal Alchemist." He retorted defensively. "And I'm not trying to get back my arm. I have my prosthetic," He held up his metal left arm for proof. "And it works perfectly fine!" Mystery shook his head, and then reached up a paw to fix the glasses sitting on his nose.

"Then what on Earth are you doing out here?" The dog asked, exasperated. "What could you possibly stand to gain that could be worth risking your very soul over?"

"My sanity!" Arthur blurted out before he could think to stop himself. He was just so frustrated and Mystery didn't under _stand_ and he was _losing vital time_. "And an end to the nightmares that always play out the way things should never have gone!" His voice was rising, and his hands were flailing; wild gestures trying to accentuate emotions he didn't think were coming through in his words. Thank god they were the only ones in the parking lot, or surely someone would have called the police over the noise. 

"I stand to gain the ability to once - just _once_!" Arthur shouted. "Wake up, and not having a demonic voice remind me of how _I killed my best friend because I wasn't strong enough to fight it off_! That fucking voice has been following me ever since we went into that fucking cave. Threatening me. Threatening Vivi. Threatening you. I would give my soul to have that damned thing gone for just one night - just ONE - of having my head all to myself again!"

The final word echoed dramatically across the empty lot, and the silence that fell after it was stifling. Arthur dropped his hands, breathing hard, and looked away from Mystery. It felt too much of a risk to look the dog in the eye. He'd already spilled a mess of emotions in a heated moment, and he feared that any more, and he wouldn't have the heart to go through with his plans that night. Finally, after several long, painful minutes, he heard Mystery whine.

"Oh, Arthur…." The dog stood up from the bag he'd been 'guarding' and walked to the edge of the van, rearing up to lay his paws over Arthur's shoulders in a hug. The young man screwed his eyes shut and hugged back, digging his fingers into Mystery's white fur like a lifeline. Mystery felt the shoulders beneath him shake, and nuzzled against those blond sideburns. "Arthur, you should have said something…" The canine sighed. "Any one of us would have been glad to-"

 _Click_.

Mystery's eyes widened in surprise as Arthur clipped his collar to a leash tangled around the feet of the van seats, and abruptly let go. He stuttered as Arthur gave him a pained look, and leaned in and grabbed the bag from the floor. Stunned stammering gave way to furious snarling, and Mystery lunged forward, aiming to snap his teeth around the sleeve of Arthur's shirt and hold him there. But the leash jerked him short, and he missed; Arthur danced back out of his reach with a look of terror on his face. 

Too late, Mystery realized what strong memories his action probably brought to mind, and he yelped when the van doors were slammed in his face.

"Arthur!" The young man backed away from the van with a wide-eyed look, and slung the bag over his shoulder by one strap. "ARTHUR!" Mystery jumped up at the doors, pawing at the locks and windows, but finding no purchase. "ARTHUR LISTEN TO ME!" The dog howled, even as Arthur turned and began running towards the factory. "This isn't going to work! It's not worth it! Arthur! ARTHUR…!"

The slam of the factory door cut off anything else Mystery may have had to say, and Arthur ran his fingers through his hair with a heavy sigh. He was going to have to find a way to keep the dog quiet about this exorcism…provided he survived it. Glancing down at the bag, Arthur steeled his nerves and pulled out his flashlight, clicking it on and shuffling forward into the darkness. 

At least it had been cleared of ghosts already….

..........

Meanwhile, back at the tiny roadside motel, Vivi stirred from her slumber. Stone-faced, the girl sat up, swung herself out of bed, and shuffled across the room. One of Lewis' magenta eyes flashed into existence as he heard the click of a door, and then, a few minutes later, a flush. Vivi shuffled back out of the bathroom, yawning, and gave the ghost a sleepy wave.

"Hey Lew…" Another yawn cut her off before she could get much further. "Uuaaahhh…go back to sleep. Arthur's been nightmare-free so far, and I don't want to…wake…him…" The girl trailed off as she glanced at the other bed, and realized that it was as empty as hers. Suddenly a little more awake, Vivi looked to Lewis with a frown.

"Lewis…where's Arthur?"


	8. The Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _*singing* Me ~~and the boys~~ went out just - to - end up in misery~_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _....what? No-one listens to NSYNC anymore? Oh....*sees herself out*_

The ghost sat up at the question, his human projection flickering into place to reveal his look of confusion. Arthur was gone? 

The empty bed was answer enough for his unspoken question, but of course, it only raised another: Where had Arthur gone? Vivi scrambled across her own bed and snapped up her glasses from the nightstand, thrusting them on her face with one hand as she turned on the light with another. The darkness vanished, revealing the messy bed, and several missing items to boot.

"His arm is gone…" The girl realized with a sinking feeling. "And so is Mystery." She looked at Lewis with an unreadable glare, and the ghost could only shrug. He hadn't heard Arthur even get up, much less get dressed and leave. 

"Maybe he's just talking Mystery on a walk?" Lewis suggested, despite a nagging suspicion that he was dead wrong. "When nature calls, you can't really argue...." Vivi's frown deepened, and she turned to peer at the alarm clock on the bedside table. Bright green dashes blinked '4:00am' into the darkness, and the bluenette turned her glare back to Lewis.

"When have you ever known Arthur to purposefully wake up before 8am?" She growled, and Lewis cringed back a little. "Besides, Mystery's leash is still over there by the door…" Vivi swung herself out of bed again and started tugging on her clothes. "Arthur probably sneaked out to the van to work on his arm some more." She grumbled as she stormed across the room. "I am not going to deal with his griping about being tired when he goes and pulls this…" Lewis sank back on the couch as Vivi slammed the door behind her. He did not want to be Arthur right now.

"…..that sON OF A _BITCH_!"

The sudden shout caused Lewis to bolt upright, and drop his human disguise in shock. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd heard Vivi actually curse since he'd known her, and there was no reason for her to just suddenly up that number now. A number of scenarios flashed through his mind - none of them good, and most of them involving Arthur and his guilt - and the ghost somehow managed to pale. Floating up from the couch, Lewis didn't even bother with the door and phased straight through the wall. 

"Vivi?! Vivi, what's wrong?!" He cried out, looking around frantically for the source of danger/frustration. He saw nothing but an empty - wait…an empty parking lot? Vivi turned to face Lewis, her expression shuttling between fury, confusion, and hurt. 

"Arthur took the van!" She managed, her voice tight with emotions that Lewis couldn't quite pick apart. "He took Mystery and the van and he left and he didn't even leave a note!" The girl seemed to finally settle on 'fury', and it flared like a wildfire behind her eyes. Lewis actually drifted back a couple inches at the sight. Ooh…Arthur was in for it now.

"Vivi, calm down…" The specter held up his hands placatingly. "I highly doubt Arthur just up and left us - let alone Arthur and Mystery." He rationalized. A little of Vivi's fury seemed to abate in the face of this logic. Sure, Arthur hadn't been himself for a long time…any mention of caves sent him running for the hills, and he could barely look Lewis in the eye. But he wouldn't just up and leave them….that just wasn't Arthur.

"I'm sure he has a good explanation for this…" Lewis sighed. "We just need to figure out where he's gone…" A silence fell over the motel lot as girl and ghost tried to think. Where had Arthur run off to? And why so late at night (or was it early, now)? None of them were familiar with the area - they'd needed a map to find their investigation site in the first place, and they hadn't gone anywhere else but the strip mall across the street for food. The only place they'd visited more than once had been the abandoned factory...

But Arthur wouldn't have gone back there.

…would he?

Lewis and Vivi traded looks. The factory was just a few minutes outside of town; too far to walk, but only a short drive by van. If Arthur was going to just abandon them, he wouldn't have left them stranded like this, with no transportation and no explanation. On top of that, Mystery never would have let him leave just like that. Frowning, Vivi wrapped her arms around herself, guarding against the night chill, and turned to march back into the room. Lewis took one last look around the lot before following, and phased through the wall again just in time to see Vivi digging her cell phone out of her bag. 

Straightening up, the bluenette dialed a number she knew by heart and held the phone up to her ear, one foot tapping irritably. Lewis reformed his human projection and lowered himself to the ground, holding his breath (not that he really breathed anymore) to hear the faint ringing of the other end of the line. 

Once….

Twice…….

…………………

**//…-VIVI!//**

"Mystery?!" The girl sighed in a mix of relief and frustration. Mystery was with Arthur's phone, which meant they were together, which meant that they hadn't gotten far. "Where are you guys? Put Arthur on the line, right n-"

 **//Arthur's not here and I'm locked in the van.//** Mystery interrupted before Vivi could even get started on her lecture. **//We're at the old factory - you and Lewis need to get out here, FAST.//** Lewis drifted closer to the phone and leaned in to hear better, even as Vivi practically yelled back,

"What? Why?! Are you okay?!" Vivi demanded to know. A note of worry crept into her tone. "Mystery, is Arthur okay?!"

 **//No!//** Lewis swore he felt his heart skip a beat or two. **//Well, maybe…//** Mystery added to the minor relief of the other two. **//I can't explain it over the phone, just-//** There was a crash, a yelp, and something fell in the background. The phone call suddenly cut off, and the motel room fell into silence. 

There was a moment where Vivi merely stood there, a frown frozen on her face, and the phone still held to her ear. Then, she carefully lowered her phone, tucked it into the pocket of her skirt, and moved for the door. Lewis' feet came off the ground as he floated after her, this time following her through the door instead of phasing through the wall.

"Uh, Vivi…?" The ghost pulled up short to avoid a collision as his friend spun around on one heel to face him.

"Lewis, pick me up." Vivi demanded. When the specter hesitated, understandably confused, the bluenette narrowed her eyes. "NOW." Lewis dropped his human projection in surprise and hurriedly bent down, sweeping Vivi off her feet and straightening up with her in his arms. The girl crossed her arms over her chest and continued to glare at him determinedly. 

"Now get flying." Vivi ordered. "Arthur's in trouble, and we don't have time to wait for a cab."


	9. Too Late

Mystery threw himself at the van doors for what felt like the umpteenth time. 

The leash was no longer choking him, but with no opposable thumbs, he could not unclip the latch, and chewing through the leash itself would still leave him stranded in the locked van (plus the dyed industrial cloth tasted absolutely dreadful). It had been pure coincidental luck that Arthur had left his phone behind on the front seat, and that a wet nose was able to activate the phone's touchscreen. Thank the stars that the others had woken up in time to notice something was wrong….

If they'd waited until the morning, there would be no averting the disaster that was sure to come.

Frustrated, the canine began to howl at the top of his lungs and scratch at the van's rear doors. What on Earth was Arthur even thinking?! He knew black magic was dangerous; he'd heard all of Vivi's stories, and had been on the receiving end of it several times. Each time, he had escaped by the skin of his teeth, and for the grace of God. But now, he was dabbling in it himself, and there was no way this could go right.

The van doors abruptly gave way, and Mystery - balanced on his hind legs - fell forward to the end of the leash. He gagged for a moment before the arms of a familiar blue sweater wrapped around him and eased him back, finally unclipping that blasted leash and tossing it back into the van. The dog sighed in relief and started to wag his tail. Finally, they were here!

"Mystery, where's Arthur?" Vivi asked, pulling the dog out of the van and setting him down on the ground. If he'd been locked inside the van with Arthur's phone, that meant Arthur didn't have it. They'd have to find him the hard way.

"He's inside the factory," Mystery shook himself for a minute to shake off the feeling of his collar being yanked against his throat for an hour, and bounded towards the building. After a few strides, he stopped, and looked back at the others. 

Vivi was staring at him, as if hoping for a deeper explanation, and Lewis was hovering behind her, still in his skeletal form. "We don't have time to stall." Mystery growled. "Arthur is in serious trouble." That got them moving, and the trio raced across the empty lot, kicking the factory door open with a disturbingly loud 'clang'. 

Neither Vivi nor Mystery had a flashlight, but the glow of Lewis' fiery hair gave them enough (albeit pink) illumination to see at least a little ways ahead. The factory floor was just as dark as it had been on the first night of their investigation, and the only new additions were the cameras the gang had left behind earlier that day. Mystery sniffed the ground, searching for Arthur's familiar scent, but he ended up coughing instead.

"Sulfur…" The canine gagged. "Uuugh…I can't smell anything but." His ears drooped, even as Vivi reached down to pat them sympathetically. Well, that search option was out. They'd have to scour this factory top to bottom to find Arthur, now. It was a daunting task, but not an impossible one. Lewis held out one hand, and a flame burst to life in his palm. This extra light widened their circle of illumination, and the specter sighed.

"We'll have to stay together." Lewis realized. "We forgot flashlights, so I'm the only light source." His eye sockets narrowed in a look of concentration, and the flame in his hand grew bigger. They had a good radius of light, now, and Lewis decided to stop there. He didn't want to go accidentally setting this place on fire. Mystery sneezed out the last of the distasteful scent in his nostrils, and the sound echoed off the concrete walls. Vivi sighed.

"Come on, guys. Let's get started….."

..........

The book had made things seem so easy. 

Find a safe place to perform the ritual. Cleanse the space with incense and incantation. Physically create the circle (but don't close it yet). Set up the alter, crystals, candles, etc., and do all the proper blessings and chants. THEN close the circle, and start the ritual. Technically, he was supposed to cleanse himself as well as the space, but, well…

Cleansing himself was exactly what he was trying to accomplish with that stupid process.

Arthur sighed as he stared at the ground, floating uselessly in what remained of the ritual circle. Everything had gone wrong, of course. Just as Mystery had predicted it would. His own thrashing had knocked most of the ritual item across the room, and broken the circle he'd fashioned out of chunks of concrete rubble. Maybe building the circle from items already in the room had been a bad idea…

He stared down at his new arms in a dreary silence. He had the left one back, now, but it wasn't really an arm….more like a lot of ghostfire shaped like an arm. Once the shock had worn off, he'd gone through all the screaming and anger and panic in about thirty minutes. Now he just felt a dull sort of acceptance. 

He'd fucked up, he knew. In a way, he'd always known this would happen. Every logical voice in his head had told him this wouldn't work - even Mystery had told him this wouldn't work. But he'd just been so fucking desperate to get that thing out of his head….he'd gotten just what he'd deserved, in a way. This kind of thing happened when you dabbled in black magic. It was just like one of Vivi's stories.

Oh…god. Vivi.

Orange eyes widened in their sockets, and an eerie, echoey whine broke the silence of the room. Arthur almost couldn't believe that sound had come from him. That…that thing had walked out with his body, leaving him behind to try and figure out how to even stay upright, let alone move anywhere. What was going to happen to Vivi? To Lewis? To Mystery?! Hands rose up to grasp at his head - skull? - in horror, untouched by the fiery hair that sprang up from seemingly nowhere.

Oh god, what had he done!? He'd let that monster out! His friends would see it and think it was him and…and….

Another strange sound broke the silence - an echoey sort of wail that crackled like a walkie-talkie set to the wrong channel. Arthur drew his knees to his chest, though he came no closer to the ground, and curled himself into a pathetic little ball. God - if there was one - just take him now. Things couldn't get any worse than this...

"Arthur?" His eyes sprang open, and Arthur uncurled a little. That….that had almost sounded like…Lewis.

"Artie! Where are you?" Oh, Vivi, too? A sudden panic welled up in his chest, and the specter looked around desperately for somewhere to hide. But wait, he couldn't…he couldn't even figure out how to move. This was way harder than Lewis made it look. The circle had been broken almost forty five minutes before, so if he could just figure out how to move forward, he could get out; he could hide.

Arthur tried to move - he really did - but no matter how much he flailed and kicked and clawed at the air, he did little but bob up and down in the same spot. A panicked flashing of orange light lit up the room, and spectral hands came to clasp the heart that hovered above his chest. Fuck. He was well and truly stuck-

"What was that?" He heard a voice - Vivi, maybe? - speak up from down the hall. Far too close for comfort. "I saw a flash…there! Right down there." Arthur turned around, away from the door. He'd left it wide open when he'd first arrived….he hadn't wanted to risk his life doing black magic only to be locked in a creepy factory by rusty hinges and warped thresholds. The minute the gang came around the corner, they'd be able to see him all the way from the end of the hallway.

His head was a god damned campfire. How could they miss him?

The panic was tying itself in knots in his chest, and Arthur automatically gripped one hand over his (now disembodied) heart. He couldn't feel it trying to beat out of his chest, but he knew it should be, under normal circumstances. He heard a chorus of gasps, and a snarl - oh crap, maybe they thought he was a bad guy? 

The footsteps quickened, and Arthur whimpered one last time before straightening up. He wasn't going to be able to dodge this, so he might as well face it. At the very least, he'd figured out turning, so he turned back around to face the door.

"…..h-heEEEYY, guys..." Arthur 'swallowed' audibly. "F-fancy seeing you here…"


	10. Come Together

"…..h-heEEEYY, guys…" The specter raised a flaming left hand in a feeble wave. When he received no answer, he ‘swallowed’ audibly. "F-fancy seeing you here…" Mystery's growl died out into silence, but Vivi didn't notice. She didn't even hear Lewis' strangled whine. Her focus was all on this familiar ghost…..this friend……Arthur. The specter seemed to shrink on himself even more, drawing his knees up towards his chest as if in defense. "….g-guys?"

In all the books she'd read, the phrase 'dawning horror' had always described the realization of a horrible misdeed as slow. You saw it coming, and then it slowly ramped up until it completely sank in, and then you collapsed. You had time to process; time to prepare yourself for the fall. 

All the books she'd read were wrong. 

The 'dawning realization' hit her like a freight train at full speed. They were too late. Way too late. By the settled dust and cold candles, this ritual had been over and done with a long time ago. It had probably been over before they'd even realized Arthur was gone. There was no happy ending; no swooping in last minute to save the day and save Arthur's butt the way they always did. They. Were. Too. Late. Arthur was…..w-was…..

A sudden pain in her knees pulled Vivi from her thoughts long enough to realize that her legs had given out, and she felt Mystery's cold nose press against her cheek. Arthur - oh, god, that was Arthur - was staring at her. No, no, not staring...he couldn't look her in the eye. He was glancing at her, then glancing at the floor, at Lewis, the broken circle, Mystery, back to her…typical frightened, embarrassed, ashamed Arthur.

Chips of concrete and flakes of rust fell away as Vivi climbed back to her feet, and halfheartedly brushed the rest away. She was the first to move forward, across the threshold into the room, and across the broken lines of the ritual circle. Arthur shied away from her, of course; those amber eyes widened, and he turned away on the spot, trying to hide the ghostfire that was his left arm. 

A determined frown crossed the bluenette's face, and Vivi reached up and grabbed the front of the ghost's waistcoat (seems formal wear was the thing for the recently deceased). With a firm yank and a startled yelp from Arthur, she dragged him down until his feet hit the ground again. The impact made no sound, and the lack of it almost seemed louder than any shout. Vivi looked up at Arthur, and he stared back, locked in place by a mixture of fear of confrontation and fear of Vivi.

"….." The words she'd expected to have didn't come when called, and Vivi closed her mouth for a moment before trying again. "Arthur…..Artie…" He flinched at her voice, and that hurt almost as much as knowing he was dead. Vivi took in a shuddering breath, and tried again, wondering dully why her throat felt so tight. "Artie, what did you do…?" 

The moment the words left her lips, she knew they were the wrong ones. Though he no longer had a face to express with, she saw the hurt in Arthur's eyes, and the heart that drifted between them darkened to a sad rusty color. He made a painful sound - hissing and echoey, so much like Lewis - and raised his hands as if to brush her away. 

He stopped short of touching her, however, staring pointedly at his fiery arm, and Vivi quickly let go. She stepped back as Arthur began to hover again, still drifting in the same place, but now several inches off the ground. She watched him wrap his arms around himself and draw up his knees, and when she heard a reverberating sniffle, her heart broke.

"Oh….oh, Artie, no." Vivi reached her hands up, this time to the skull, and tilted Arthur's face up to meet him eye to eye. The orange ghostfire that formed his hair licked at her fingertips (sideburns and all….it must have been a memory-influenced thing), but rather than burning, it just felt mildly warm. She would have been fascinated, had she not had bigger things to worry about. Arthur froze at her touch, and he began to tremble as Lewis moved in. 

He began to openly cry when Lewis wrapped an arm around him in a hug.

Mystery quietly picked his way into the circle, and sat down at Vivi's feet as the impromptu group hug closed in, pinning Arthur between his friends. Vivi's hands moved from Arthur's skull to his arms, pulling them free until she was holding both of his hands in hers. It was an eerie sensation; the ghostfire hand possessed the same mild warmth as the hair, but the more corporeal hand was cold….as cold as death, as the saying goes. It almost made Vivi shiver.

Eventually, Arthur's sobbing began to slow. It had been a long time since the gang had gone through a moment like this; they'd been common long ago, when all was still good and solving mysteries was just a fun pastime that barely paid for the gas in the van. At some point, Arthur's corporeal hand shifted to Lewis' arm, and clasped it across his chest, seeking something stable to cling to. His friends stood in silence, waiting - as they always did - for Arthur to speak first.

"…I'm s-sorry…." The silence was finally broken. "Y-you guys, I-….I thought….y-you wouldn't understand." Arthur whimpered, still clinging to Lewis' arm like a lifeline. "I-I had to….I had to do this. It….i-it was gonna make everything b-…better…" He cringed before Vivi could even open her mouth. "A-and no! No, I-I wasn't s-supposed to d-die…" Arthur made a hiccuping sound, which echoed unnaturally in the empty room.

"Arthur." Mystery spoke up now, drawing the attention of both ghosts and girl down to where he sat below them. "You're right. We don't understand." The canine pinned his ears back, his expression as close to neutral as he could manage. "So enlighten us…..what were you trying to do?"


	11. Confession

Arthur suddenly found it very hard to lookout his friends, and he tried to pull back. 

Unfortunately, Vivi's grip on his left arm was too tight, and his right couldn't bear to let go of Lewis, so all he could manage was a frightened whine. Vivi made a gentle shushing sound and began rubbing her thumb across the palm of the ghostfire hand, the way she used to on late nights when the painkillers wore off too early, and narcotic-induced nightmares kept Arthur from sleep. 

She wasn't sure if Arthur could feel it - he couldn't exactly feel with his metal prosthetic, either - but the gesture seemed to help, and Arthur stopped trying to pull away.

"….I was trying to get rid of something." Arthur finally spoke up after nearly two minutes of dead (no pun intended) silence. "I'd already tried everything else - pills, incense, positive thinking - and nothing worked." Orange eyes stared down at the ground, as if the effort to look up was too much. "I was getting desperate, and….and then, I found this book in Vivi's collection.

"It made things sound real easy….told me everything I needed to get; everything I needed to do…" There was another echoey sniffle, and Arthur shook his head. "Should've known it wouldn't be so easy…things started out going just fine, but…then they went wrong….and, god…" His voice shriveled to whimper. "Did they go wrong…" The room lapsed into a silence again, and Vivi held her breath, waiting for Arthur to continue.

"Arthur…" It was Lewis who spoke up first this time, prompting the other specter when it seemed as though he'd try to end the conversation there. Arthur flinched a little bit at the sudden sound. "What were you trying to get rid of?" Only moments after the question, Lewis' face twisted in confusion, and he twisted his hand to get a better grip on the one that had started to shake.

Suddenly, Arthur was looking anywhere but his friends. But left, right, up or down, someone was there - Vivi, Lewis, Mystery - and he had nowhere to look but back down at his own feet. He made a hissing sound, as if drawing a breath, but the words got stuck in a throat he no longer had, and Arthur trailed off with a strangled whine. 

Mystery reached up and put a supportive paw against his leg, and whispered something. The words did not reach Vivi or Lewis, but they seemed to take the edge off of Arthur's panic (for a moment, at least), and the ghost sighed.

"…I-I was trying to g-get rid…of…..ofademon." In an attempt to hide his fearful stutter, Arthur started to string his words closer together, until they almost slurred into one. "Not a full one, just part of one. Th-the one f-f-from the c-cave….part of it must've g-gotten stuck in me when M-…when Mystery tore off my arm." Arthur started to shake, again, but the words kept coming. "I could still hear it's voice in my head after that day. Always insulting me, pointing out my flaws, threatening to hurt me or the people around me. 

"I-it was bad…..really bad….after I woke up in the hospital." He felt Vivi's grip on his hand tighten, and he almost felt bad. They hadn't talked about those days since…and they hadn't told Lewis about them at all. "I got…I got really low. Th-though that, maybe, if I killed myself, I'd kill that thing, too." Now Lewis' grip tightened, and Arthur almost cringed. Lewis had been the muscle of their group for a reason.

"Vivi…..Vivi stopped me." Arthur finally paused, suddenly fighting to reach words that had been so easily called upon just moments before. "She didn't know….not about the demon…but she talked me off the ledge. And you know…..for the first time since I'd heard it, the voice shut up. I think that meant I was on to something….it was stuck inside me - if I died, it died." He knew without even looking what the other were thinking, and Arthur didn't dare look up to see the horrified looks they no doubt wore.

"I didn't-…I didn't try again….n-not seriously…" The orange specter quickly added. "I tried drowning it out instead….video games, working on my arm, just spending time with Vivi and Mystery…all the normal things kind of muffled it, and then I just got good at ignoring the rest." Arthur shrugged. "And then…..when we found Lewis…..wh-when he came back…..it disappeared.

"For the first time in two years, that damned thing was completely silent. It was beautiful." The echoey, wheezing crackle was the farthest thing from a laugh Arthur had ever heard, and he almost couldn't believe that it came from him. "I even forgot it was there, for a while….but…." His brief bout of positivity faded as quickly as it had popped up, and Arthur sank a little lower in the air, his feet almost touching the ground again. "But then….it came back.

"It came back, and it got louder, and louder, and _louder_ , and _LOUDER. **Every day**_." His ghostfire began to brighten, and Mystery scooted back a little. Arthur whined, shaking his head as if trying to shake something away. "I couldn't drown it out anymore, and none of the old stuff worked. It was threatening you…..all of you….saying it would take control again and hurt you. I-I didn't know if it was lying, but I…I couldn't take the chance-"

"Arthur…!" Vivi hissed and finally let go of the ghostfire hand; it had been steadily heating up with its owner's emotion, and its warmth had quickly gone from mild to painful. Arthur's eyes widened, and he jerked the arm back against his chest, looking ready to cry. Only Lewis' grip on his corporeal hand (and the fact that he still hadn't figured out moving) kept him from outright running away.

"O-oh no! V-vivi…" There was that echoey sobbing sound again. All of that building frustration and panic was suddenly gone; replaced by a frighteningly voidish sense of fear. "Vivi, I-I'm so sor-"

"It's fine! It's fine!" Vivi insisted, holding up her hand as proof. "Look, look, I'm not even burned. Really…" She reached out for Arthur's hand again, but he sobbed, and shied back against Lewis, and away from her. "Arthur…" Vivi stopped. "You didn't hurt me, I promise." She reached out again - slower, this time - and took his left hand again. The ghostfire had receded to a mild warmth once again, but Arthur did not return her grip.

"You tried to exorcise yourself…" Vivi quietly prompted when she thought Arthur was ready to continue.

"And I killed myself instead." Arthur finished with a whine, trying to push away from Lewis. The pink specter wrapped an arm around him instead and held his friend in place. Arthur fought for a moment, but gave up fairly quickly and just slumped. "I fucked up, guys. I really fucked up." He whimpered. "I'm dead, and that thing got loose and stole my body-"

"Wait, wait, WAIT." Mystery interrupted, his hackles standing on end. Arthur jumped at the tone and flailed back against Lewis, eyes wide. "Did you just tell me that the demon is wandering around in your body?!" The little dog snarled. Arthur shrank back even more, and nodded weakly. "For God's sake, Arthur, that's something you need to lead with!"


	12. It's a Start...

"For God’s sake, Arthur, that’s something you need to lead with!" Mystery started to pace, forcing Vivi to step back out of his way. "Alright, alright, let's not panic…" The canine muttered, though more to himself than to the others. He was the authority on supernatural entities, here. If he panicked, then surely the others would, too (God knows Arthur would), and they needed to stay calm and rational. "This could be a good thing.

"If the demon was trapped inside you before the ritual, than he'd still be trapped in your body now." Mystery mused out loud, looking up at Arthur. "Actually releasing beings like that from entrapment is a very complicated process, and - no offense - I highly doubt you could do so, even accidentally." Arthur started to raise his ghostfire hand, as if to protest. But he stopped himself, and lowered it after a moment of thought. 

"And, since he couldn't do much while trapped besides taunt you," Mystery continued on before Arthur's thoughts could get much darker. "He probably doesn't possess any strong supernatural abilities right now. In so many ways, he'd be human."

"So he's just Arthur?" Lewis tried to follow along. The smaller ghost deadpanned at this, and finally pulled his corporeal arm out of Lewis' grip.

"Hey, wh-what's wrong with 'just Arthur'?" Arthur huffed, crossing his arms tight over his bony chest. The comment normally wouldn't have gotten a rise out of him, but he was feeling unusually defensive right now. Lewis cringed as his friend pulled away, and reached out to grab his shoulder.

"Oh, no, Artie, I didn't mean-" The specter was interrupted by a sharp bark from Mystery.

"My point," The dog bristled until he was sure all three were focused on him again. "Is that we may be able to fix this. Correctly, this time." That got their attention, and Arthur's defensive posture relaxed somewhat. "Being 'just Arthur' puts this demon on our level….for a time." Mystery continued. "There are ways for him to regain his power even in a mortal form, but if we act quickly enough, we can stop him."

"Then….then what are we waiting for?" Vivi didn't wait for the boys to find their voices before she bent down and picked up the spell book that had been left discarded on the floor, just outside of the broken circle. There had been too much silence, tonight. She would talk for hours if only to ward off more. "We've got the van, but that demon's got a headstart on us, so we won't find him tonight…" 

The bluenette retrieved Arthur's bag from the floor and began to pack it up again with whatever she could still salvage from the mess in the room. Arthur's body language tensed again as Lewis let go of his shoulder and started to help Vivi pick up the scattered crystals, candles, and incense dishes kicked across the floor. Mystery remained at the young ghost's feet, though, as if he knew that all of them stepping away - even just for a few moments - was not a wise idea.

"Let's pick this stuff up and get back to the van." Vivi outlined as she moved around. "We're not too far from Lewis' place…we can regroup there, and rest, and make a plan in the morning." Straightening up, the woman started grabbing items from Lewis' arms and stuffing them into the bag. She barely managed to close the flap over her rushed packing job, and - turning on one heel - threw the bag over her shoulder as she marched for the door. 

"W-wait! Guys I-…uh…" Arthur trailed off, and looked away again as Vivi's eyes turned back to him. His fingers tapped together bashfully, and he tried to ignore the faint sizzling sound that came from his fiery fingers touching his colder, specter ones. "I….c-can't figure out how to move…." Arthur admitted after a minute, glancing up at his friends briefly before looking away again.

"…….." Lewis grabbed Arthur's non-fire arm near the elbow and dragged him forward, out of the broken magic circle and out into the hallway. Upon sheer force of habit, Arthur flinched at the touch, and this did not escape Lewis' attention. The magenta specter's expression softened sympathetically, and his grip loosened, and slid down from Arthur's elbow to his wrist. Mystery silently padded after them as the group made their way out of the factory - Vivi leading, and Lewis pulling Arthur along by his arm. 

On the way, Vivi picked up all the group's cameras; shut them down, folded up the stands, and shoved them into the arms of Lewis and Arthur, neither of whom found the voice to complain. They seemed to be doing their best to hold the silence, now, as much as Vivi had been trying to break it just minutes before. Arthur kept treating his ghostfire arm as if it would melt whatever it touched, and this left Lewis to carry most of the equipment. 

Eventually, however, Arthur had to (gingerly) hold on to the back of his friend's suit with this one free arm, and let himself be pulled along like a toy on a string, for both of Lewis' arms were full of the cameras and stands that Arthur was afraid to touch.

The silence held even as the group finally left the factory, and approached the lonely van still parked in the lot. The back doors were already open; Vivi had left them that way after they had 'rescued' Mystery from being locked inside. The bluenette climbed inside and threw the battered bag on the floor (Arthur flinched at the crash) before turning to take the equipment from the boys' arms. 

"I'll drive." Vivi volunteered once the last of the equipment had been stored away and strapped down. As she moved to climb over into the front seat, however, Arthur cringed, and finally spoke up.

"Vivi, wait! Ah…a-about that…." The orange specter tightened his arms across his chest, and stared down at the back bumper of the van, as if fascinated by it. "Heh, y'see, you guys always get on me for misplacing the keys…" He tried to laugh. "So I've been putting them in one place so I don't lose-"

"The keys are in your pants, aren't they." Lewis interrupted flatly. Arthur's shoulders drooped dramatically, and he seemed to shrink again. His pants, which were on his body, which had been hijacked by a demon.

"…..yeah."


	13. First Flight

In the absence of the keys, Vivi manually locked the van with their gear inside. A little more thinking reminded them all that they still had a motel room strewn about with stuff, and Vivi declared a Plan B; they'd go back to the motel first, clean up and check out, and then go on to Lewis' mansion.

It was a sound idea, but there was just one problem….

Vivi and Lewis had gotten there by flying, and that was their quickest way to leave. But there were four of them now, not two, and Arthur had not yet grasped moving about in specter form, and still had to be 'towed'. Lewis was strong, but he still only had two arms. He couldn't safely carry Vivi and Mystery in just one, and (to Arthur's chagrin) he didn't trust his friend to hold on on his own. 

Something about fluctuating powers, or something…Arthur hadn't really been listening.

In the end, they settled on a compromise. Lewis carried Vivi in one arm, towed Arthur with the other, and Arthur carried Mystery across his shoulders. Arthur focused hard on the road passing beneath them as they floated along, trying his damnedest to avoid looking at Mystery. The canine had been staring pointedly at the ghost ever since they'd set out for the motel, and Arthur knew what he wanted to say. 

_'I told you so.'_

_'You idiot.'_

_'Why didn't you listen to me?'_

He'd already gone through the conversation in his head multiple times while stuck in that stupid factory room. He didn't want to hear it out loud.

"Arthur." The ghost flinched at Mystery's voice and pointedly looked anywhere but at him. Ah, shit. Here it came. "Arthur, look at me." Nope. This conversation was not going to happen. If he didn't face it, it wouldn't happen. "Arthur Kingsman, you look at me. Right. Now." 

The tone was quiet, and almost calm; too soft for Lewis to hear over Vivi's rambling ahead of them, but almost too loud for Arthur. His ghostfire hair flickered anxiously, and he managed to hold out for an impressive three seconds before orange eyes finally turned towards the dog. Mystery had been glaring sternly, but his expression softened as soon as he made eye contact with the young specter.

"Thank you." The dog began. "Arthur, you and I need to have a long conversation about the safe practice of the dark arts. But-" He shifted one back leg to block the ghost from turning his head away. "We will have that conversation at another time." Mystery's ears tilted back sympathetically. "Arthur, listen…we are going to fix this. We'll find that demon, and get you body back." The dog leaned over and pressed his wet nose against Arthur's skull in a reassuring way. "I promise, you'll be okay."

"….aww, geez." Arthur promptly squeezed his eyes(ockets?) shut. He felt like crying ever since getting out of the factory, and this little heart-to-heart (while very appreciated) wasn't helping. A part of him wanted to just disappear until "Mystery, buddy-" Abruptly, the weight on his shoulders was gone, and he felt a quick dropping sensation. "…..Mystery?" Arthur opened his eyes and looked down, only to find himself stopped dead in the air…and a shrieking Mystery plummeting toward the road below. 

Arthur would've sworn his heart stopped, but it remained floating above his chest, and simply turned an alarming shade of red. 

By pure coincidental luck, a colorful van was driving by with its sunroof open. Mystery fell right through the opening and landed in the arms of a very startled passenger. Brakes shrieked as the driver stomped on them, and the van came to a screeching halt. The side door opened, and Mystery scrambled out, hackles raised and barking before he took off down the road again.

Arthur felt the dropping sensation a few more times in his left arm before he managed to tear his eyes away and look up again. Vivi was swiping at his arm with a horrified expression, and her hand kept going right through it. Lewis was staring at him with his own look of mixed horror and…was that guilt?

"Uh…I….I probably should've warned you about that." The pink specter reached out and grabbed Arthur's arm, and suddenly the younger ghost felt a bit more substantial. "I had trouble staying tangible when I first died, too." Vivi reached out precariously from Lewis' arms and grabbed the blond further up his arm, as if to prove to herself that he was still there. When she felt a solid something beneath her fingers, the bluenette sighed and visibly relaxed.

"Okay…okay…" Vivi sat back in Lewis' arms. "How about we go pick up Mystery and….fly a little lower this time?" She suggested. They were nearly back to town as it was; one more mile and they'd be able to see the motel sign. Lewis tightened his grip on Arthur's arm and pulled him forward again, but this time, he guided them much closer to the ground and the road below. This late at night, there were hardly any cars on the road (with the exception of that perfectly timed and very colorful van), so they didn't have to worry too much about being seen by pedestrians.

"Lewis, when we get to the motel, drop me in the lot and get Arthur to the room." Vivi ordered as they floated. It was still faster than walking, and they were running out of moonlight. "We'll pack up tonight and rest, and then I'll check us out in the morning and keep the manager distracted while you two and Mystery get our stuff out of the room. And…" She lowered her voice. "Try to work with Arthur a bit. I know he's really freaked out, and having a bit of control over his new, ah…abilities…might help him calm down."

"I can hear you." The orange specter spoke up with an audible huff. He tried to cross his arms, but one wrist was still held tightly in Lewis' grip, so he could only cross the one. It wasn't quite the same gesture, and it just made him look silly. Vivi sat up and smiled at him over Lewis' shoulder.

"Sorry Artie." She apologized, not sounding sorry at all.


	14. Learning the Ghostly Ropes

They collected Mystery a half mile down the road and resumed their flight to the motel. 

This time, Vivi carried Mystery from Lewis' arms, and Arthur sulked as he was towed along by one arm. He hadn't _meant_ to go intangible and drop Mystery sixty feet - it had just _happened_. The canine in question kept sending him looks over Lewis' shoulder, and Arthur couldn't figure out if they were accusing or pitying. 

He found himself hoping for the former. Somehow, it hurt less.

Lewis kept them much closer to the ground this time - to where Arthur's shoes barely dragged the grass - and finally stopped just before the edge of the motel parking lot. The flickering illumination of the scattered lightposts just barely reached the edge of the asphalt, and Vivi and Mystery hopped down onto their own two (and four) feet, with Vivi quickly looking up to scan the lot.

It was, more or less, just as empty as it had been when they'd left at that ungodly hour….with the exception of one more very colorful and very familiar van. Vivi glanced back at her boys as she thought, one hand drumming against her thigh as her mind raced. Her eyes flickered around the landscape, plotting out possible escape routes and obstacle-free ones, and judging how much of a risk each one could possibly present.

"Okay, boys," The bluenette finally spoke up in a stage whisper. "Here's what we're gonna do. I'm hungry as fuck, and so's Mystery. Probably." The dog sent her a half-hearted glare, but not much more. He was always hungry. What was her point. "He and I'll go in and raid the 24/7 cafe up by the desk. We'll make a bit of a scene, chat it up with the staff, etc." Vivi outlined. "That should give the two of you plenty of time to sneak around the lot and get Artie inside before anyone can see him."

"Why around the lot?" Arthur mumbled, wanting to get this over as quickly as possible. "Why can't we just go straight there?

"Because that," Vivi pointed to the colorful van parked a few spaces away from theirs. "Is the Mystery Machine." She explained. "This is not an exclusively pet-friendly hotel," They'd had to beg Mystery's way in, themselves. "And you know a certain someone won't let his giant talking doggie buddy sleep outside all alone." Arthur fell silent, and seemed to shrink a little in shame. He'd forgotten about those two.

"Sorry, Artie," Lewis put one large hand on his friend's shoulder. Arthur flinched at the touch, and glanced up at the other briefly before looking back down. "But until you get a little better at this….uh….this 'ghost' thing…" You could easily hear the cringe in the specter's voice; those weren't nearly the right words, and he knew it. "It's best if we don't let anyone see you."

"Fine, fine…" Arthur grumbled quietly and shook off Lewis' hand before crossing his arms defensively. Confident that her boys could manage at least that simple stealth task, Vivi tugged on Mystery's collar and set off across the parking lot. The two ghosts watched until the pair had disappeared through the double doors of the motel lobby, and then the larger of the two turned and began to drift away. The smaller looked back at him sharply, and almost in a panic.

"H-hey, where're you going?!" Arthur whined. "I still can't move, remember?" Lewis stopped and turned back to face his friend, now some thirty feet away.

"I know," He replied. "But you've got to learn eventually, so why not now?" He shrugged. " Look, we'll catch this demon, I promise. But I can't keep towing you around all the time." Lewis sighed inwardly. "At least if you can move, you can run away if you get into trouble. And I know you - you WILL get into trouble." Arthur puffed up his chest, ready to protest this accusation, but after a moment of thought, he sighed heavily and relaxed.

He'd always been a magnet for trouble, and it was too much to hope that being dead made any difference.

"Alright…" Arthur sighed in resignation. It was kind of pathetic that he couldn't even move on his own. Learning to 'walk' again was humiliating, but it was for the best. "What do I have to do?" 

"Think about moving forward, but without walking….like those moving walkways they've got at the airport." Lewis advised. "Concentrating on a destination can help, too, so try focusing on me, for a start." The pink specter held out his arms. "Think about moving toward me; you really want to be where I am, and there's nothing else on your mind."

"This seems a lot of work just to move forward…" Arthur whined, his shoulders sagging. Good god, if it was this complicated to simply move around, then there was no way he was going to master phasing through things and controlling fire and everything that Lewis made look so easy.

"It gets easier the more you do it, I promise." Lewis tilted his skull, and Arthur could swear he heard a reassuring smile in the larger man's tone. "Come on, Artie, just give it a try. I'll tow you to the room if you can get over here to me." He offered. Arthur snorted.

"You'll tow me there even if I don't." He retorted dryly. Lewis wouldn't leave him stranded out in the open he hoped. But nonetheless, Arthur closed his eyes, and imagined himself moving towards Lewis a-la invisible conveyor belt. After a few seconds, the frustration started to kick in; he didn't feel anything happening. Geez, could he not even move right?

Then he heard Lewis chuckle, and his voice was much closer - almost beside him. Orange eyes snapped open (or was it on? He didn't exactly have eyelids anymore) to glare at the other, only to realize that he was practically nose-to-nose with Lewis. With a startled yelp, Arthur fell backward (and actually moved backward, to boot), but Lewis reached out to grab him by his ghostfire arm and pulled him back.

"See?" The ghost's magenta eyes lashed jovially. "I told you you could do it."


	15. Up All Night

Moving around became significantly easier after that first success. 

After five minutes, Arthur didn't even need to 'close' his eyes to visualize it anymore. He even figured out 'up' and 'down' - to Lewis' audible praise, which made the new ghost's heart flash a[n embarrassingly] proud pink - by using the same trick with an elevator instead of a walkway. 

To the utter relief of his pride, he had it down well enough that he didn't even need Lewis to tow him back to their motel room, and just in time, too. The older ghost pulled them both through the door just minutes ahead of Vivi, who came skidding inside with Mystery hot on her heels. The bluenette slammed the door as quietly as she could, and then leaned her back against its surface.

"That was close," She sighed. "The staff is pretty pro-pet, but that manager…" Vivi trailed off with an explanatory whistle, and Mystery moved to hop up onto the nearest bed. He circled once or twice before laying down, and laying his head on his paws. "I see you two got here just fine." Vivi grinned at her boys. "And Arthur's moving, too!" The orange ghost shifted bashfully and pointedly avoided eye contact, but his heart faded through a gradient of orange to blue and back again. 

"Hey…" Vivi smiled quietly, and reached out to grab one of Arthur's hands - the left one, specifically, though he tried to flinch away from her. "I'm proud of you, Artie. You're adjusting. A lot faster tha-" The girl stopped herself mid-word, and a pained expression crossed her face before she fought it down. "….you're adjusting. And that's good." Lewis looked back and forth between his friends, wondering why they both looked ready to be sick, but before he could ask, Arthur pulled his hand away from Vivi's grasp and folded his arms defensively across his chest. 

That was the end of that conversation….

It had been a long day for everyone, and it wasn't much longer before Vivi followed Mystery's lead and climbed into bed. The sun was already starting to tinge the horizon ghostly pale shades of yellow and gold, but check-out wasn't until noon, and the gang wouldn't be leaving until Vivi had gotten at least a few hours of sleep. So, Lewis and Arthur settled themselves on the couch, and waited.

Ghosts couldn't really 'sleep'. At least, Arthur didn't think they could. He'd seen Lewis go into some kind of unconscious resting state before, but he didn't want to try it, himself. He didn't want to risk discovering that ghosts could have nightmares, too.

"…it figures." The words were so quiet that Lewis nearly missed them, and he looked across at Arthur in confusion. The orange specter hadn't moved from his place on the couch, and his eyes were staring at some invisible point between his knees.

"What figures?" Lewis questioned, a worried undertone to his voice. Arthur hadn't spoken or moved for the past hour, and his eyes had been darkened. Lewis had thought his friend was resting. Orange eyes, clearly awake, flickered up for a brief moment, and Arthur let out a short, raspy sigh. It echoed far too much for the small confines of the motel room, and sounded alarmingly hollow.

"I couldn't sleep before because of the voice in my head." The newborn ghost explained. "Now, for the first time since that fucking cave, the voice is gone…." Arthur drew in a long, shaky breath - purely out of habit, as he no longer possessed lungs - and his shoulders sagged. He finally moved, turning away from Lewis with a soft, shameful whine. "And I still can't sleep because I'm dead."

He felt so stupid; so pitiful. What right did he have to be upset over something as trivial as lost sleep? Lewis hadn't been able to sleep for years, and all because of **h i m**. The frustration, the helplessness, the agony; this is what he deserved. It was all he deserved. He should be grateful he even still had his friends to help him out….they should have just left him to haunt that god-damned factory for eternity-

"STOP THAT." A large hand grabbed his right arm and jerked him around, and Arthur cried out in surprise before quailing under the hot magenta glare of Lewis. The pink specter was normally very careful to control his looks of anger around the other, due to several post-reunion mishaps that neither of them liked to think back on, but the fury was bubbling so close to the surface, now, that it was all he could do to keep his hair from lighting up the motel curtains.

But as Lewis looked down at Arthur, that roiling anger cooled. The orange specter was visibly trembling, and leaning as far away from the other as Lewis' grip on his arm would allow. His eyes were practically white with fear, and had shrunk to mere pinpricks in the dark sockets of his skull. His heart had turned a familiar shade of pink, and beat wildly; had it still been behind his ribs, it surely would have burst out, by now.

Lewis let go, and Arthur promptly fell back against the arm of the couch. Had he known how, he probably would have phased right through it, and the wall behind, just to get some distance between them. Lewis' own heart turned a sad shade of blue, and he reached out his hand again, but this time slower, and palm up.

Lewis was furious - **l i v i d** \- but not at Arthur. He wasn't even sure he could pin it on just one thing.

He was angry with the demon, for killing him, hurting Arthur, and then driving his friend to such extremes as black magic. He was angry at Mystery, for not recognizing the signs of something demonic when he was supposedly the supernatural authority amongst them. And he was angry at himself…for not being there when his best friend needed him…for not noticing anything was amiss…for letting Arthur suffer in silence….everything.

"I'm…I'm sorry." Lewis flickered his human persona into being as he watched and waited for Arthur to calm down. "I'm not mad at you…I promise, Arthur, I'm not mad at you." The floating heart slowly faded back to orange, and the younger ghost hesitantly uncurled. Lewis' open hand still hovered between them, and Arthur began to reach for it with his left arm before stopping. 

He stared at the ghostfire appendage for a long moment, weighing something in his mind, before slowly - as if any excess speed would blow out its flames - reaching the rest of the way and laying his hand on Lewis' palm. 

The pink specter gently closed his hand around Arthur's, and smiled reassuringly. He tugged briefly on the limb, taking advantage of the other's lighter frame to tow Arthur back across the couch, and he let his human persona fade as he wrapped one arm around his friend's back. He felt Arthur lean into him; felt the warm presence of fiery hair against his person, and Lewis let his eyes darken.

They stayed that way for the rest of the night, and only parted when the alarm on Vivi's phone began to shriek.


	16. Quite A Nasty Wake Up Call....Again

Arthur's brain never really stopped working.

Even when he 'slept', the thoughts kept whirling around. Blueprints, memories, random facts and insecurities all flashed past his mind's eye; consciously ignored but unconsciously recorded. For that specific reason, Arthur had never really liked horror games, movies, or stories. 

No matter how many times he told himself the gruesome tales were all fiction, or disproved their black magic all with the soundest of logic, it never mattered. When he dreamed - when he slept - it was **r e a l** ….and the dreamworld wasn't always left behind when his eyes opened. 

So when Vivi's phone clock turned to 7am and began shrieking the Silent Hill siren wail, Arthur reacted accordingly.

An unholy, ghostly shriek startled Lewis out of his rest, but his mind was not fully awake yet, even as frantic hands began clawing violently at his suit, trying to push out of his arms. Something was suddenly hot _HOT **H O T**_ against his chest, and out of reflex, Lewis shoved it away. Something crashed, and Mystery sprang awake barking and howling. The pink specter scrambled to his feet, knocking over the coffee table in front of the couch as he tried to put some distance between himself and whatever threat had been clawing at him before. 

Mystery's barking abruptly trailed off into a whimper, and Lewis swiped one hand across his skull out of habit, finally getting a good look at the room around him. The coffee table and all of its contents were spilled across the floor, and one of the decorative pictures from the wall behind the couch had somehow been ripped off the wall and thrown down, shattering the glass and breaking the frame. Arthur was nowhere to be seen, and Vivi was still dead asleep, despite the continuous howling of her alarm. 

Lewis groaned long-sufferingly and floated over, quickly tapping the 'snooze' button to silence the eerie siren wailing. In keeping Arthur's state of mind from getting any worse that night, he'd forgotten about her particular choice of a wake-up call…Mystery jumped back up on the bed and shook himself, collar jingling, before sitting down and trying to smooth out his bedraggled headfur.

"Well, Arthur's gone," The canine stated the obvious. "And scared out of his mind, no doubt." He reached up a paw to meticulously adjust the yellow glasses that had been knocked askew by the rude awakening. "Without knowing how to create a living projection, there's no way he can blend in." The dog sighed. "But, at least we can take solace in the fact that this motel is quite empt-"

As if in direct protest of Mystery's words, a loud (human) shriek rang throughout the building, and the canine's ears slowly drooped. The shrieking continued for a minute, and something smashed against the wall of the room just next door. Lewis slowly looked down at Mystery, and his human projection flickered into place, revealing his horrified cringe.

"….I'll go get Arthur." The ghost 'gulped'. "And….let's not tell Vivi about this." Both ghost and dog glanced at the bluenette, still dead to the world and snoring on the bed, and Mystery nodded in agreement.

"If she wakes before you return, I will tell her that the two of you are 'practicing'." The canine replied. "But it will be best if you get Arthur back here before the other guests start screaming that this place is haunted." He added, and Lewis nodded quickly before turning and phasing out of the room through the wall behind the couch. Vivi wasn't stupid, and any talk of this motel being 'haunted', and she'd know immediately that something was up.

Arthur was having a hard enough time adjusting to his ghostly form; Lewis didn't want to throw Vivi's temper in on top of that.

Appearing in the adjoining room, Lewis let his human appearance fade. Another ghost sighting was easier to explain away than a floating human walking straight through a very solid wall. The door leading outside was hanging open, and the room was empty but for one very confused and not-quite awake ghost hovering in the middle of the floor. His heart was rippling between shades of orange, reflecting his unstable state, and Lewis quietly approached him from the side.

"Artie…?" He questioned slowly. "You okay?" Coming out of the 'ghostly state of rest' (for lack of better terms) was disorienting on a good day, and Vivi's choice of alarm had nearly scared poor Arthur to death (....again). The ghostfire of his arm had flared up as he'd lashed out at the perceived threat, and that heat had been what Lewis had pushed away. An instinctive urge to escape injury had turned the smaller ghost intangible, and Lewis had unintentionally shoved him right into the other room. 

The pink specter did his best to look un-intimidating as the smaller ghost looked up at him silently. He didn't respond, but he also didn't flinch away when Lewis set a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

"…let's not tell Vivi about this." Arthur finally spoke up and broke the silence. Lewis nodded, glad they were all on the same page. He wrapped one arm around Arthur's shoulders and pulled him close, turning and pulling them both back through wall into their own room. 

Mystery shot them both a relieved look over the shoulder of Vivi, who had, by the looks of it, woken up just seconds before. Thankfully, however, without her glasses, Vivi's world was a blur of colors and shading. She never knew the morning had started off wrong; all she saw was the white blur of Mystery, and the pink and orange glows of Lewis and Arthur, all of which sharpened when she slid on her pink lens.

It was surprisingly painful to give her boys that bright, cheerful morning smile. A part of her had been fervently hoping that the past night had been some sort of exhaustion-induced nightmare. They'd all been working hard on cases, the past few months, and none of them had been well rested. Maybe her mind had just dreamed up a worst-case scenario; something her subconscious had fretted about, but that her conscious mind knew could never happen.

But there, floating beside the couch, was proof-positive that the past night had, in fact, happened.

Arthur was dead.

"Morning, boys!" Vivi poured out all of her willpower to keep the pain and disappointment out of her voice. "Check-out's in just a few hours, so let's get packing!"


	17. Close Call

It was a good thing that they traveled light ,because without the van to carry their luggage, the gang had to carry everything back to Lewis' mansion.

Lewis didn't really need a go-bag anymore, since he could just conjure or project whatever clothing he wanted/needed, so most of the packing belonged to Arthur and Vivi. Arthur was still having trouble staying tangible for long periods of time, and kept dropping things when he tried to pick them up and pack them. But at the very least, he was now moving around on his own, and didn't need to be towed like a toy on a string. 

Plus, it saved his pride quite a lot of trouble, and left Lewis with another free hand.

The pink specter left Vivi to her packing (she had an 'order' amongst all that chaos that she refused to let him touch, anyway) and followed Arthur around instead, helping him chase down the things he dropped, and doing his best to act as though nothing was different. It was perfectly normal that Arthur couldn't keep his feet on the ground; perfectly normal that his ghostfire hand occasionally scorched what it held when he got frustrated.

It was a lie, but it hurt less.

Within the hour, the gang had packed up the last of their remaining gear, and Vivi left them to sneak Mystery off the premises while she went down to the office to check them out. Lewis had most of the bags slung over his shoulders, since he would be carrying the bulk of things this trip, and Arthur fidgeted nervously with the strap of his single bag. So far, he'd managed not to accidentally phase his hands through the strap, but he'd only been concentrating for about five minutes, and it would be a long trip back to the mansion.

The small town they'd come to investigate had been just over a day's drive away, and that was just a little too far to be driving back and forth. They planned to fly, because while Lewis could project a human appearance and fake walking, Arthur could not. The van, too, would have to stay parked in the factory's empty lot until Vivi could dig up the spare keys from Arthur's room (he had them - he just didn't carry them), but at least they weren't likely to get a parking ticket, there.

Lewis was the first to leave the room, popping his head out the door in his human disguise. The Mystery Machine was still parked just a few spaces away, but none of its usual occupants seemed to be around. Lewis waited a few seconds just to be safe, and when the coast was clear, he ushered Mystery out ahead of him. The dog circled around the edge of the parking lot to avoid being seen from the front office, and stopped at the far side, waiting for the others. Adjusting the bags over his shoulder, Lewis stepped outside onto the outer porch of the motel, and turned to look back inside.

"Okay, Artie, let's go," He called out quietly. "We're meeting Vivi half a mile down the road, and we'll go from-"

"Excuse me!" The interruption nearly caused Lewis' own disguise to flicker, and the ghost cursed under his breath, scrambling to grab the sunglasses hanging from the neck of his vest. He barely got them on in time to turn and face the stylishly dressed redhead coming at him from the direction of the office. She must have been in between the buildings when he'd looked earlier.

"Uh, y-yes?" Lewis tried not to sound too nervous, even as a panicked Arthur slammed the door to the room. If he was trying to act inconspicuous, he was failing miserably.

"You haven't heard or seen any…unusual occurrences around here, have you?" The redhead asked, her hands coming to rest sternly on her hips. "Strange lights or noises, like…flaming skeletons…?" Had Lewis still possessed the ability, he'd have paled. As it was, his laugh was distinctly shaky, and he resisted the urge to step back.

"Flaming skeletons?" Lewis had never tried so hard to sound so calm. "You're kidding right?" Even from behind the door, he could sense Arthur's aura spiking wildly, and he spied an orange light leaking from beneath the door. Could ghosts sweat nervously? Lewis was on his way to finding out.

"I know it sounds ridiculous," The redhead didn't seem to notice the light, thank god. "But my friend swears that's what she saw last night. She's usually very credible."

"Well, sorry, but I haven't seen any….flaming skeletons." Lewis lied through his projected teeth. "It was probably just some kids messing around, if anything. There's not much else to do in small towns like this.

"Hmm, you could be right." The woman nodded. "Thanks anyway…" She moved passed him, but looked back over her shoulder just a few steps later and winked. "Have a safe trip!" Lewis smiled politely until the woman had disappeared into a room several doors down. Then he sighed heavily in relief and reached back to knock on the door to their own room.

"The coast is clear….again." He stage-whispered. The door swung open and Arthur poked his flaming head out, orange eyes wide.

"Dude, was that Dap-"

"Yeah, yeah, it was." Lewis reached out, grabbed Arthur by the waistcoat, and dragged him outside, bags and all. "Let's move before anyone else sees us..." 

Mystery was still waiting for them on the far side of the parking lot, crouched in the bushes where even his white fur was hidden, and when the two specters finally joined him, he broke cover, and they headed for the road. They hadn't lost too much time, all disruptions aside, and by the time they reached the meeting place, Arthur had only dropped his bag twice due to tangibility issues. 

Vivi, however, still managed to beat them to them there, and they found her waiting with her hands on her hips.

"Glad you two could finally make it!" She began with a grin that was equal parts cheery and pissed. "Hey, did you know that our motel was haunted?"


	18. Given Time to Sink In

The first night back in the mansion was surprisingly painful.

Not physically, of course. Their physical reentry actually went pretty smoothly. They made good time on their 'flight' home, and Arthur's tangibility problems happened less and less the more he adjusted to his new state of being. Even the Deadbeats - hostile at first to this new spirit on their boss's territory - had warmed up to their new ghostly 'brother' fairly quickly.

But when night fell, Vivi once again remembered that Arthur was dead, and the sound she made was heartbreaking.

Muffled by her pillow as it was, though, the noise died before it left the confines of her room. The woman took a slow, deep breath, intending to exhale calm and slow…only to find the same wail spilling from her mouth again. And again…and again…and again…until she was sobbing into her pillow with such force that even her bed frame creaked. Vivi dug her nails into the navy pillow cover until she felt the fibers split, and she didn't dare let up until her screaming fit had lessened, and she could breathe quietly again.

Slowly, the bluenette let the pillow fall back to the bed and sat up, leaving behind a large dark stain on the fabric. The cold contact of the air beyond her bed sheets helped to bring her back to her senses, and calm her still-racing heart. Sniffing, she tried to wipe her eyes on the sleeves of her pajama top, but the fabric just wasn't absorbent enough. So, with a muttered curse, Vivi slid out of bed and made her way to the door.

The hallway beyond was dark and cold; lit only by a few scattered candles that cast a dim, flickering magenta light, the suits of armor that loomed along the walls cast long, eerie shadows, and certainly made the place look as haunted as it was rumored to be. Knowing better, Vivi tiptoed out onto the plush runner rug and headed for the bathroom further down the hall. She stepped as quietly as she was able past silent metal knights and blank-faced portraits.

Neither of her boys were asleep, now, and she didn't want either of them to see her like this.

Reaching the bathroom, Vivi eased open the door and slipped inside, flicking on the light and grabbing a handful of tissues from the counter. She promptly blew her nose to clear out all that painful post-sobbing mucus, and made a disgusted sound as she threw the used tissues into the trashcan. Turning away, she grabbed a hand towel from the bar on the wall, and finally looked up at herself in the mirror.

Her skin was puffy and flushed, and her eyes were an alarming shade of red. Vivi glared at her (blurry) reflection, as if sheer force of will could erase the tear tracks and vulnerable expression of fear that she refused to let her beloved boys see. With a vicious twist, Vivi turned on the tap of the sink and leaned down and splashed cold water over her face. Leaning on the edge of the sink, she breathed slow and deep, willing her heart to slow and beat as if she hadn't just spent a half hour sobbing into her pillow.

She didn't see the Deadbeat watching her from the doorway.

The little spirit's heart turned a sad shade of Vivi-blue, but it made no sound. Mistress Vivi looked so sad…she probably didn't want to be disturbed. Instead, the little ghost flew upwards through the ceiling of the hallway. Master Lewis would want to know how sad his friend was. He could cheer her up, right? The Deadbeat flew up into the hallway on the floor above and straightened out, following its heart around corners and down stairs to find its master.

Lewis wasn't too far away, and he wasn't alone; both he and Arthur were sitting in what would have been the master bedroom, had the mansion been owned by normal folk. Lewis had his own separate room - where his coffin resided, far below the foundations - and Arthur had the room he'd claimed when he and Vivi had come to stay. But that night, the familiar orange sheets and cluttered floor space had felt foreign and distant….after only ten minutes in his own room, Arthur had stormed out, his heart flashing wildly. 

Lewis had promptly brought him upstairs, where perhaps the unfamiliarity and openness of the unclaimed room would help him calm down.

The little Deadbeat chirped politely as it phased through the door, circling around its master once before turning to Arthur and wiggling its way into his arms. The orange ghost laughed weakly and gingerly patted the spirit's head with his left arm.

"Heeeey there, lil' guy…" Arthur 'exhaled' - an odd sound that was more akin to radio static. "Heh, you're a lot happier to see me now then you were earlier, huh?" He mused. Lewis chuckled, and the Deadbeat chirped affirmatively, wrapping itself around Arthur's corporeal arm like a snake.

"They just didn't recognize you, at first." The pink specter speculated aloud. "And I, ah…may have told them to keep an eye on you and Vivi after you moved in…" He admitted. "Your luck sucks, and bad things sometimes follow Vivi home. The Deadbeats are sort of like guard dogs…" Lewis reached out and scratched the little spirit just above its heart, and the Deadbeat trilled happily.

"So when I walked in all ghosty and they got all spiky," Arthur clarified, reaching up with his left arm to scratch the Deadbeat much like Lewis had. "It was because they thought I was a threat?" Lewis laughed nervously.

"Only at first." He hurried to point out. "As soon as we told them who you were, they were chill." As if in example, the little Deadbeat wrapped around Arthur's arm was purring contently, and nuzzling itself against the ghost's skull. Despite his somber mood just a short while before, Arthur's heart faded through a gradient of Deadbeat pink before returning to orange. The little spirit's yellow eyes suddenly sprang open, and it disentangled itself with a loud chirp. Arthur couldn't help but jump at the sudden movement.

"Wh-whoa, whoa, lil' guy!" The newborn ghost watched as the Deadbeat suddenly spun to Lewis and began flying in circles around him, chirping, clicking and trilling frantically. He watched Lewis' expression fall, and a cold chip of ice dug itself into his own heart. "Lewis…?" Arthur blinked as Lewis suddenly stood up, and floated towards the door. "Lew, what's wrong?"

"Arthur, stay here." Lewis stopped just before the door and looked at the Deadbeat; a moment of silent communication passed, and the little spirit returned to Arthur - once again curling around his arm. "I need to go check on Vivi."


	19. From the Heart

As soon as he'd closed the door, Lewis allowed his heart to turn blue.

The Deadbeat had told him 'Vivi is sad'. But Vivi had seemed perfectly fine just a few hours earlier…what had changed? As he phased though the ceiling of the floor below, Lewis felt his heart sinking with him. Vivi had always been their rock - their pillar of strength. When Lewis gave in to anger, and Arthur to fear, Vivi was always there to level them out. Very rarely had the boys seen beneath that granite facade….

Lewis had almost forgotten that she was just as vulnerable as them.

After only a few turns down the halls, Vivi came into view; she was just stepping out of a bathroom, drying her face with a hand towel. To the casual observer, she looked like she had simply washed her face. But it was 3am, and her eyes were still red. The Deadbeat pointed with one stubby arm and chirped brightly, tuning hopeful yellow eyes up to its master even as Vivi's head snapped up to glare at them accusingly.

"Alright, Vi," The specter crossed his arms sternly, though his tone was far less demanding. "Tell me what's wrong." Vivi threw the towel back into the bathroom with a somewhat vindictive flick of her wrist and turned on her heel, marching back towards her bedroom. 

"There's nothing wrong, Lew." She insisted, trying to ignore the ghost that drifted after her. "I jut had a…minor nightmare." Lewis deformed one eye socket in a skeptical frown. "I didn't want to bother you or Arthur…" Vivi paused at her open door, one hand on the knob. "…you should go back up to him, Lew." She muttered in a quieter voice. "He's probably freaking out about now." She stepped inside and closed the door with a 'slam!', and Lewis rolled his eyes. He stepped forward and easily phased through the door, and into Vivi's room on the other side.

"Surprisingly, Arthur's holding up pretty well." The ghost commented. Vivi ignored him and stormed back over to her bed, where she picked up her pillow and (rather viciously) began to fluff it. "I'm more worried about you, right now."

"There's nothing to worry about!" Vivi snapped irritably. "I had a nightmare. Shit happens. It's not the first t-…time." The woman stopped and took a deep breath. Her voice was steadily rising, and the mansion only had thin walls; if there was no way to avoid this confrontation, then she at least wanted as few people involved as possible. She felt a warmth at her side as Lewis drifted up beside her, and Vivi turned to sit on the edge of he bed, staring down at her bare feet against the floorboards.

"I'm….I'm scared, Lewis." Vivi admitted in the quietest voice the ghost had ever heard from her. "This never should have happened to him. Mystery should have noticed - no, no, I should have noticed!" She made a tiny sound and steepled her hands over her face. "Arthur had that thing in his head for more than a year, and I didn't see it." A heavy arm settled around her shoulders and pulled her against a warm body, and Vivi started to shake.

"He didn't think he could come to me - to us - for help…" A sob was crawling up her throat, and she couldn't find it in her anymore to fight it back. "I bet he thought we wouldn't believe him…" The weight of her emotions was suddenly insurmountable, and Vivi hunched over her lap with a raged wail. Briefly, as Lewis' warm hand rubbed her back and her glasses fogged up from the tears, she wondered if this was how Arthur felt in the year it had been between leaving the cave and finding the mansion.

The parallel almost broke her heart.

Lewis said nothing as he watched Vivi cry, and just sat there, rubbing her back as her shoulders shook and her voice cracked. He wasn't sure he had any words that could soothe her…Arthur was unsettlingly adept at hiding his feelings; he'd been so before they split, and he still was after they'd reformed. It was something they both knew about the blond, but it was a hurdle they'd never quite cleared. In ninth grade, Arthur had silently suffered intense bullying for months before Lewis had caught the bullies red-handed. After the cave, he had buried himself in guilt and self-hatred so deeply that it still hung around to this day, even though he would smile for his uncle, and for Vivi, and even for strangers.

This time was only one of many….and it hurt so, so deeply, because none of them had been there to step in and save the day this time.

Eventually, Vivi's tears ran dry, and her gasping breaths slowed. She sat up to lean against Lewis' shoulder, and they sat in silence for several agonizingly long minutes more. Finally, Vivi took a long, shaky, deep breath, and wrapped her arms around Lewis. The specter - now sitting in his human disguise - returned the hug. He buried his face in that blue hair and just held her….he needed the contact as much as she did.

"….I'm scared that he won't stay." Vivi whispered again when she could stand the silence no longer. Lewis pulled back a little to look at her, but the bluenette continued before he could speak. "You stayed because you wanted revenge. Now you stay because you love me - you love us." The bluenette frowned. "But Arthur doesn't want revenge…so what is it that made him stay?" Vivi turned worried blue eyes up to Lewis. 

"What if….what if he fades before we can get his body back?"


	20. Eavsedropping

Barely a minute after Lewis had left the room, Arthur got up and tried to follow him.

The Deadbeat Lewis had left behind unwound from around the ghost's arm and swooped in front of him with a scolding chirp. Arthur frowned and went left, then right - the Deadbeat dutifully followed him, smiling blankly the entire time. The ghost finally pulled up short with a huff; he still couldn't understand anything these little spirits tried to say, and unless he wanted to play charades for an hour, he needed Lewis to translate.

But that didn't mean the Deadbeats couldn't understand him, so Arthur crossed his arms and tried to adopt the sternest expression he could on his skeletal face.

"Outta the way, buddy." Arthur ordered. "I've got to see if Vivi's okay." The Deadbeat spread out its stubby arms to block the way and shook its head with another chirp. Nuh uh. Master Lewis told him to make sure Arthur stayed here, and that's what he was going to do. The newborn ghost crossed his arms with a downright sulky huff, and stared stubbornly at the little pink guard….but the Deadbeat still didn't relent. After about thirty seconds of this staring contest, Arthur gave in and looked down at his feet.

Then his eye sockets creased into a suspiciously cheery grin, and he phased himself down through the floor.

The Deadbeat chirped in alarm and dove through the floorboards in pursuit. No fair! Master Lewis had said that Arthur hadn't yet mastered the finer points of ghostliness! By the time the little spirit had phased through the floor, the room below was empty, and the door was thrown wide open. The Deadbeat made a sound quite reminiscent of a dying Pacman and covered his eyes with his stubby arms.

He was going to be in so much trouble.

……….

Despite living there for several months, Arthur had never been very good at navigating the mansion.

The ghost skidded to a stop in the air and let his feet hit the floor. The hallway split off three different ways in front of him, and none of them looked familiar. On top of a generally massive floor plan, the building was created from pure supernatural energy. Rooms appeared and disappeared as needed; hallways lengthened, twisted and circled around until they led right back to where they'd begun. 

Arthur usually didn't wander the place…he had safe routes between his bedroom, his 'workshop', and the main rooms the gang usually hung out in. The master bedroom Lewis had brought him to after he'd freaked out in his own room was not along any of those routes….and to Arthur's dismay, neither was the room directly below it.

He didn't have too much time to mope, though, for his Deadbeat babysitter quickly caught up with him, and promptly began scolding him with angry chirps, clicks and finger waggles. 

"Aw, geez….hey, hey," Arthur put on the best frown he could mange without a jaw and held up his hands placatingly. "Look, I know Lewis probably told you to watch me, but I can't just sit back if Vivi needs me!" The Deadbeat placed its stubby hands on his hips (did….did he even have hips?) and shook his head stubbornly. The larger ghost sighed with a dramatic sagging in his shoulders. 

"Listen, little guy…..Vivi is never in trouble." Arthur explained. "She's always the one who drags our butts out of the fire - she's never in the flames herself." The Deadbeat's stern expression softened as it watched the glass heart floating above Arthur's slim chest fade to a sad, pale shade of blue. "If it's bad enough that Lewis is worried about her….bad enough that Vivi's…hurt…then it's got to be really bad." Arthur's ghostfire left hand came up to cradle the heart.

"With all the times she's been there for me, I owe it to her to return the favor." The ghost looked up at the Deadbeat. "Please, help me get to her? I'll take the heat from Lewis later, I swear. And, uh…fire pun not intended." He added quickly. The Deadbeat's lower lip trembled, and he reached up one tiny arm to wipe away spectral tears. Sorry, Master Lewis, but that was just too moving.

Arthur's heart remained a shade of Vivi blue, but he brightened up considerably when the Deadbeat made a gesture to follow, and took off down the hallway. Moving had become an almost unconscious action, now, so he was easily able to keep up. Left, left, right, right…down these stairs, around this corner, through this door….finally, the walls around them began to look familiar. There, just at the end of the hallway, that was Vivi's door; she'd painted it her favorite shade of blue-

"I'm scared that he won't stay." Arthur skidded to a stop in the air, and a few meters ahead, the Deadbeat stopped, as well, and looked back in confusion. Vivi's voice was quiet, but in the otherwise silent mansion, it carried down the hall like a shout. The color of Arthur's heart immediately darkened, and the Deadbeat flew back to him with a soft trill of concern.

"She's...scared?" The orange ghost repeated in quiet confusion. He....he hadn't realized-....wow. The cogs in his mind began turning. If Vivi was afraid, then...did that mean his fading away was a possibility? Honestly, Arthur hadn't thought about that, yet….when the ritual had gone awry, and his soul had been literally torn out of his body (again….ouch), was he supposed to have just….disappeared? If so, then…why hadn't he? He had no burning desire for revenge, like Lewis had, originally. Did he stay because of guilt? He certainly felt enough of it….

Or….maybe he stayed for something else….

The Deadbeat's eyes shifted to mimic a raised eyebrow at the conglomeration of colors flashing across Arthur's heart. The little spirit chirped in alarm when the other's ghostfire arm and hair flared up, and he disappeared down though the floor again. Before the Deadbeat could follow, he felt a familiar presence, and turned to face his master, standing in the doorway at the end of the hall. 

Lewis' eyes narrowed knowingly, and the Deadbeat smiled sheepishly.

Busted...


	21. Heart to Heart

Arthur didn't think he could handle another crisis.

Phasing down through the floor brought him to the basement - specifically, Lewis' room - but the distraught ghost merely slumped down onto the dais steps. His heart was swirling with shades of blue and purple with the occasional flicker of red, and his emotions were roiling jut as much. It wasn't a question of 'did he love them'. He knew without a doubt that he did. Lewis and Vivi were the best things that had ever happened to him!

….but was that enough?

Lewis stayed for love now, but he had originally stayed for revenge. Hate was a very strong word - a very strong emotion - and was the reason most spirits stayed on the mortal plane. What if love wasn't enough…? Wh-what if he didn't love them enough? What if he did fade before they could get his body back….if they could even find that monster at all?

The very thought of having to leave behind the people he called family caused Arthur's heart to creak dangerously, and the ghost buried his skull in his knees to float in an upset ball just above the dais steps. He managed to contain himself for a few minutes, at least…he was visibly tense, but his hair and arm only flickered a little more. 

Then an arm wrapped around his shoulders, and Arthur keened.

Lewis pulled the younger ghost close to his side as he began to cry, and shifted his arm down to wrap it around his back. In response, Arthur turned and pressed his face into the other's lapel, and orange tears began leaking from his eye sockets. As the room began to echo with sobs, Lewis' heart turned a sad shade of blue, and he reached out his free arm to pull Arthur even closer. He held the younger ghost as his shoulders shook and his hair flared, and only when Arthur had trailed into silence again did Lewis speak.

"You heard us talking, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question. Arthur's skull bobbed in a sullen nod, and Lewis cringed, even if it didn't show well on his own skull. "How much?"

"Just the last bit…" Arthur sniffled, pushing himself away to wipe at the tears dribbling down his cheekbones. "The 'what if I fade away' part…" Another sniff, and he moved to run his hand down his ghostfire arm. At his touch, the flames calmed, and reformed themselves back into a more humanoid shape. He left his hand at the elbow, in a remnant nervous gesture he'd had in-…..in life.

"You're afraid that if you don't love us enough, you'll disappear." Arthur looked up sharply, mishearing Lewis' worried tone as pity.

"I-I love you! I do!" He insisted quickly. "But wh-what if….what if th-that's not enough? What if I do fade away, and that m-m-monster stays in my body? He might come back and hurt you, and…and I wouldn't be there…" His flames began to intensify again, and break from their shapes. Oh, wow. How could he feel like he couldn't breathe if he didn't need to breathe anymore?

"Arthur, it will be enough." Lewis insisted back, reaching out to grasp the other's shoulders and steady him. As if by magic, Arthur stilled at the touch, and his flames returned to normal. Lewis shifted one hand to cradle the side of the others' skull. "No matter what happens, Vivi and I will never let you fade." He promised. "We will catch that demon. We will get your body back. I promise you that."

The colors of Arthur's heart finally began to stabilize, and the magenta shade slowly grew to be the majority. Arthur tipped forward until his bony forehead rested against Lewis' chest, and he let out a long, drawn-out and heavy sigh. Mystery, from his seat by the door, tilted his head, and graciously afforded the boys another full minute of comfortable silence before speaking up.

"If you're both ready," Arthur squeaked and would have leapt through the ceiling in surprise had Lewis not had a strong grip on his arms. "Perhaps we can return upstairs? Vivi is quite worried about you two." The canine explained. "…as am I, I must admit." He added after a moment's pause. "The Deadbeats are all wound up in reflection of Lewis' emotions. What happened between you two?" Lewis glanced sidelong at Arthur, but the shorter only crossed his arms defensively.

"He, uh….he overheard Vivi and I speculating on how long he could stay tethered here." Lewis admitted sheepishly, reaching up to rub the back of his skull. "His body is technically still alive, so we can't really compare him to me…" He sighed briefly and lowered his hand. "And there were…concerns….about whether or not we could get his body back before he fades." To the surprise of both ghosts, Mystery began to laugh out loud.

"Oh, you really needn't worry about that." The canine told them with a reassuring smile. "Arthur can't fade away. He isn't a ghost."

"…….come again?"


	22. Every Little Thing is Gonna be Alright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sliiiiightly different ending to this chapter. I was never satisfied with how the original finished._

There was a long minute of uncanny silence in the crypt, broken only by the gentle crackle of Arthur and Lewis' fire. Both spirits stared down at the mystical canine, waiting for him to elaborate.

When Mystery only stared back with a cheery - but blank - smile, Lewis cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry." The pink specter made a show of banging the heel of his palm against the side of his skull, as if trying to jostle water out of nonexistent ears. "I must've heard you wrong. I thought you just said Arthur-"

"Arthur isn't a ghost." Mystery repeated casually, as if they were talking about the weather and not some life-altering factoid. "That would require his body to be dead. His body is still very much alive, hence, Arthur is not a ghost."

"Then what the hell AM I?" The orange specter threw his arms up in the air, dislodging Lewis's arm from around him. "I have a skull for a face. I float. My arm is made of this weird fire." He rubbed his corporeal hand over his fiery arm in demonstration, kicking up agitated little curls. "If I'm not a ghost-"

"You are a disembodied spirit." Mystery interrupted calmly, trotting over to the two ghosts ghost and not-ghost and jumping up to the top of the dais. "The improper ritual - and the demon - simply 'kicked you out' and filled in the void left behind."

"Then…" Arthur let his arms drop, frustration giving way to confusion. God, these past thirty minute were the worst emotional roller coster he'd been on in months. He wanted his money back. "Why do I look like….this?" He gestured to the waistcoat and bowtie, ignoring the insulted look Lewis threw him. What was wrong with dressing nice? "All fancy and skeletony and crap?"

"Your spirit created your disembodied form based upon your perception of what it thought you were - that being a ghost, and the only ghost you've spent significant time with is Lewis. Thus, your spirit molded your disembodied form after Lewis' appearance." Mystery explained, lifting one paw to place on Arthur's pant leg. The ghost spirit stared down at it sullenly for a minute before making eye contact with the dog.

"So….I can't fade away?" The color of Arthur's heart brightened a few shades in hope, and the heavy feeling in the room finally seemed to lift.

"Exactly." Mystery smiled and lowered his paw. "Now, there are rituals that could sever the remaining connection…The dog held up a cautionary paw when Arthur paled and Lewis moved to interrupt. "But to accomplish them, one would need significant spiritual power." The dog adjusted his glasses and smoothed back his fur, akin to a lawyer adjusting his tie. "With the demon trapped in Arthur's body, he can do nothing harmful." Mystery smiled up at the boys. 

"He is perfectly safe."

"………." Lewis was the first to move - laughing out loud and clapping his hands down on Arthur's shoulders before dragging the blond back into a bear hug. The atmosphere lightened considerably, and the crypt brightened with the light of magenta candles and orange embers as Arthur's laugh joined with Lewis'. Mystery tipped one ear fondly as he watched Lewis practically swing Arthur like a doll, both of them laughing and howling and shouting like madmen.

There was nothing particularly funny about their turn of events, but the sheer relief needed some sort of outlet. It didn't matter what emotion had held him back. Arthur wasn't going to fade away. They weren't racing against the clock. 

They weren't going to lose him

"Wait! Wait!" Arthur finally contained his giggles and tapped at Lewis' arms, twisting his skull 180 degrees to look back at him. "We gotta go tell Vivi!"

"Right, right!" Lewis promptly let go, and Mystery's smile widened as he watched both spirit fly up through the ceiling and disappear. Arthur was getting far more adept at moving in this form, and didn't even need Lewis to tow him anymore. As the candle flames in the crypt bean to fade, the canine stretched leisurely before trotting down the dais steps and making his way back into the mansion proper.

He made a pretty good therapist, if he did say so himself~

……….

"Vivi!" Knockknockknock. "Vivi!" Knockknockknock. "Vivs, open up!" Lewis gently grabbed Arthur by the back of his waistcoat and towed him back from the door before knocking himself - slower and more gently.

"Vivi, can we come in?" The specter asked. "We have something we need to tell you." Someone shuffled on the other side of the door, and after two long minutes, a bedraggled Vivi opened the door. Unaware that Arthur had been listening in, after Lewis had left, she had tried to go back to sleep and rest. By the bags under her eyes, though, she hadn't been successful, and one look at her was enough to curb Arthur's enthusiasm to a reasonable level.

"What's wrong?" Vivi asked tiredly, swinging the door open as she scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her palms. "Is Arthur okay? Lewis, why did you run off?" Lewis moved his hand to Arthur's shoulder to keep the other from floating away in giddy excitement.

"Nothing's wrong, Vivi," Lewis assured her. "Arthur and I just had a revealing talk with Mystery, and-"

"I'm not a ghost!" Arthur interrupted excitedly. "I mean, I'm still 'dead', but Mystery says I'm still connected to my body." The spirit all but wiggled on the spot, and Lewis had to restrain a laugh. "I can't fade away!" Vivi felt her knees weaken, and her vision began to blur, but she still tried to smile. Reaching out, she grabbed Arthur in a hug that yanked his feet back down to the ground.

Lewis joined them after a moment, and wisely chose not to comment on the tears of relief silently streaking down Vivi's face.


	23. Practice, Practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _This is the first chapter written in almost a year, and...well, you can see it in the writing style. T_T Hopefully chapter 24 isn't quite as difficult._

"……n-….no. No, that's….that's not quite right." 

"I dunno," Arthur turned his semi-opaque arm as the fire-like texture rippled up and down the pale orange skin. "I think it has a nice aesthetic." Lewis groaned and shook his skull.

"Arthur, the point of this illusion is to look as normal as possible."

"Have you seen some of the tattoos people are getting these days?" The blond shot back, a smile on his projected (if still semi-translucent) lips.

"Arthur,” Lewis frowned sternly. “Tattoos don't move."

Mystery shook his head fondly from where he lay beside the heating vent, watching Lewis and Arthur talk. They had been ‘practicing’ a living illusion for the better part of four hours, and this was, by far, the closest Arthur had yet to come.

The long session would have normally been quite the drag, but Arthur was still riding the high of finding out that he wasn’t technically a ghost and was therefore in no danger of fading out of existence against his will. The kitsune was content to leave the teaching to Lewis, though. He may have been a supernatural expert (thank you~) but a ghost was the best teacher for ghostly techniques.

Besides, winter was cold, and the spectrally spooky mansion came with an awful lot of drafts that were right about dog-level. He planned to stay right there on the heating vent as long as kitsunely possible.

“Okay, try it again.” Lewis ordered, trying hard to keep the sigh out of his voice. Arthur continued to grin at him, but obediently closed his eyes once more. The majority of his human projection was actually very accurate, but for the left arm. It remained the right shape, but with each try, there was something….off about it.

Sometimes, it refused to change with the rest of Arthur’s body, and stayed a mass of rippling fire in the shape of an arm. Sometimes, it took on the shape of the prosthetic arm Arthur had been wearing on the night of the ritual. But Arthur didn’t seem satisfied with this, and kept trying until he managed a relatively human arm, but with a

That wouldn’t fly out in public, though, and Arthur didn’t relish the thought of staying cooped up in the mansion or in the van on his own. So he pulled his arm back into his lap and concentrated. Flesh arm, flesh arm….he’d had one all his life. It shouldn’t be so hard to replicate, right? He’d done it with the rest of his body….

“…..!” He heard a small gasp from Lewis, and Arthur opened his eyes expecting to see a smile. But Lewis was staring at him - no, at his arm - as if he had just been handed something foul. Confused, Arthur looked down at his lap, and made a sharp gasping noise of his own.

His projection had a flesh arm. He’d succeeded in that regard. But the skin…

….was _**G R E E N**_.

……….

Arthur stared in horror as the arm came up before him and flexed its fingers. His hearing suddenly felt muted, and though he distantly heard Mystery’s voice calling after him worriedly, Arthur didn’t react to it. 

He couldn’t feel his fingers.

He couldn’t feel his left hand.

He couldn’t f _e e l….h i s…. **A R M**_.

Lewis cringed as Arthur sucked in an unnecessary breath, and started screaming. The soul should have lost his living projection the moment his concentration faltered, but Arthur was TOO focused on his arm - his ‘living’ arm stained that damned green shade - and he couldn’t NOT focus on it. Mystery scrambled up from his beloved heating vent and ran over, shouting Arthur’s name, but the blond flinched away from him - the canine narrowly dodged a wild kick to the muzzle as Arthur tried to simultaneously throw himself away from Mystery and his own arm.

“Arthur!” Lewis flew after the other, and grabbed his left wrist. “Arthur, it’s not real! It’s not real!” The ghost grabbed Arthur’s chin with his free hand and forced the other to face and look up at him, rather than his arm. With his line of sight broken, Arthur’s illusion flickered, and the green arm faded back to the rippling ghostfire that seemed to be it’s default.

“N-not…?” Arthur tried to pull out of Lewis’ hand to look at his left arm, but even though the illusion had faded, Lewis pulled Arthur’s attention back to himself. 

“It’s not real….” The ghost repeated in a gentler tone. “Arthur, it’s okay…it was just an illusion. It’s not there anymore.” He helped Arthur into a straighter sitting position and, after a moment’s hesitation, pulled the other’s left arm back between them. “See? It’s not there.”

“Not there…” Arthur repeated, still looking like he wanted to be sick. “It’s…n-not.” The soul took a slow, deep breath with lungs that weren’t really there, and Mystery tentatively crept up to them. Head bowed, the canine nudged Arthur’s closest knee with his nose, and Arthur straightened his leg in an invitation for Mystery to hop over into his lap. The dog eagerly complied, and pressed the top of his head into Arthur’s chest.

“…..I think that’s enough practice for today.” Lewis tentatively broke the silence after a few long minutes. “How about we go and find Vivi?”

“Y-yeah…” Arthur nodded slowly. “Yeah, let’s…l-let’s go find Vivi. It’s about time for breakfast, right?”

“Right.” Lewis shifted, and Mystery shuffled backwards as the ghost helped the soul to his feet. “You know she hates sleeping through a meal.” He tried to laugh, and the joke seemed to lighten the mood at least a little, for Arthur cracked a tiny smile, too. Lewis shifted his hand down from Arthur’s left wrist to his left hand, and after a few seconds of hesitation, Arthur returned the gesture. His fiery fingers felt surprisingly warm, for a disembodied soul.

“Well, let’s not keep Vivi waiting, shall we?” Mystery stretched out his back legs with a small sound. “I’ll go and rouse her, and you boys can get started in the kitchen.”

“Sure.” Lewis nodded, and turned a smile to Arthur. “I could use an extra set of hands, if you don’t mind?” The ghost swung their clasped hands between them pointedly. “The Deadbeats are super eager, but, ah…they can’t exactly read directions, you know?” Arthur glanced down at their hands and smiled, still holding his ‘living’ projection (with the notable exception of his left arm).

“Of course not, Lew.” The soul shrugged. “I mean…if you wouldn’t mind having me underfoot, that is.” Lewis waved his arm to lightly knock Arthur in the hip.

“You’re never underfoot, Artie.” The ghost smiled, and then started moving toward the kitchen, tugging Arthur along. “What do you think we should try first? I was thinking blueberry pancakes…”


	24. Two Places at Once

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _DoowEEEOOOOOOOOO~_   
>  _....wait. Wrong fandom. ~~Shit~~._

The isolated highway between Tempo and the rest of the world was a lonely place.

Officer Kelling breathed out, and took a long draft of her coffee. Between patrol, Murphy’s resignation, and her little girl’s first nightmares, she felt like a wrung out sponge. She really needed to talk to her supervisor about a change….surely the transfer from Tulsa could handle this shift? Sure, the guy was a rookie, but nothing ever actually happened way out here.

……well.

Nothing serious, anyway.

Every now and then, you got a call from worried parents about teenagers who were late for curfew. A quick drive down to the local church usually found said teenagers splattered in spray paint and trapped by the lecture of an irate reverend. Every now and then (though admittedly more 'then' than 'now), you had your tragedy, like when a local kid had gone missing for almost half a year, and another had lost an arm. The boy had been an absolute wreck, insisting he’d killed his friend and begging Kelling to arrest him for murder.

She hadn’t had the heart to even take his statement until the third day, when he’d been calmer (though admittedly more medicated).

But it had all turned out well, in the end. The missing boy had found his way home, and his friend had even built himself a new arm (and brought quite a bit of attention to their tiny town, to boot, if only from a small niche of the medical and science communities). And with those two outliers aside, nothing serious every happened in Temp-…

“…….” Officer Kelling blinked and leaned forward in her seat. Had she imbibed in too much coffee tonight? Or was there someone walking along the side of the highway? She stared for a few more moments, and then sat up and put her coffee in the cup holder. Nope. She hadn’t had too much coffee (yet).

A lone figure was wandering along the side of this road, kicking idly at a loose chunk of asphalt as he went. He paused to watch it bounce along the dirt, roll under the guardrail, and disappear down the bluff on the other side, and then his shoulders drooped. He moved to stuff his hands in his pockets, but the left one missed entirely, and jerked to an awkward stop before the figure just let it hang. After a few seconds, he resumed his lonely walk, and Officer Kelling narrowed her eyes.

That spiky silhouette looked familiar….could that be…? Kingsman’s kid? No…the old mechanic swore the boy had improved. It had been all he’d bragged talked about for weeks, and it had been at least seven months since Kelling had needed to pick the boy up from a ‘long walk’. Quietly shifting into ‘drive’, the policewoman pulled out of the emergency turnoff and back onto the road, aiming her headlights at the lone figure.

“Oh, kid….” Kelling winced as Arthur Kingsman jumped at the sudden lights and spun around, trying to shield his eyes from the bright light with his one remaining flesh hand. The poor boy was dirty and exhausted; his spiky hair was wilting, and his shoes and pant cuffs were caked in dirt and mud. His signature neon orange vest (one which Kingsman’s Garage had practically made a local feature) was missing, and the sleeves of his shirt were torn; his exposed arms and shoulders were covered in small nicks and scratches (and some not so small), and were smeared in dried blood and dust.

Officer Kelling slowed to a stop behind Arthur (who watched her with a strange curiosity but flinched when the car shifted and swayed into park) and opened her door, climbing out and shutting it behind her. She clicked on her flashlight, but kept it pointing down, as a courtesy to the tired boy who still couldn’t look directly at her patrol car’s glaring headlights. She took a deep breath, let out a sigh, and reached out to touch the boy’s good shoulder. Arthur flinched, at first, but then relaxed.

“Come on, kid, you know the drill…” Kelling gestured to her patrol car with her flashlight. “Hop in and buckle that seatbelt, and I’ll get you home.” Arthur’s body language closed up, and Kelling mentally began organizing her persuasive argument. It was too cold out tonight to just be ‘on a walk’. There had been coyotes sighted by the park services crew around the bluff. The highway up ahead had recently been repaved, and there were loose bits of asphalt all over-

“O-okay.” Arthur’s voice was small and hesitant, but also…relieved. He took a step, hesitated, and then began to shuffle around the front of the patrol care. Kelling followed him, one hand lightly resting on his shoulder as a guide as she stepped up and opened the door for him. Arthur timidly climbed into the passenger seat, his slim, pale frame seeming even smaller against the dark interior. Kelling gave him a stern look until the boy fumbled for and buckled his seatbelt, and then she closed the door.

Coming back around to the driver’s side, Officer Kelling settled back in and closed the door. With a fluid motion, she discreetly turned up the heater and turned the vents toward her worn out passenger. Arthur just sat there silently, his hands tucked underneath his knees, and his shoulders hunched. Kelling checked her mirrors before pulling back onto the highway, and getting up to speed.

“…..rough night?” The policewoman asked after several long minutes of silence. Arthur jumped at the sound of her voice, but then nodded his head.

“Y-you could say that…” He mumbled softly. Kelling sighed under her breath as she refocused on the road. It was a bit of a winding drive back to town, but it would only take them a few minutes, with the roads so empty. Her captain would understand why she left her patrol route.

….she hoped.

“Let’s get you home, kid.” Kelling flicked on her blinker out of pure habit, and pulled off onto their exit. Arthur watched in the side mirror as the distant streetlights of the highway began to shrink into the darkness.

“……” The young man wrapped his arms around himself, and sank back into the upholstered seat. “Home…sounds good.” He murmured.


	25. Homecoming...?

Her passenger fell asleep not long after the highway, and Officer Kelling turned her radio down even further to keep the silence.

……….

Not that she thought Arthur would wake up anytime soon. The poor kid looked like he’d walked through a tornado (not an experience she’d ever recommend).

At the very least, his injuries seemed superficial. There were bruises, but they weren’t exceptionally dark. There were scrapes and scratches, but they didn’t seem too serious. There were a few rusty spots on Arthur’s otherwise white shirt that worried her, though….but in the dark interior of the patrol car, she wasn’t able to get a good look at them. They could have been bloodstains from wounds she couldn’t see.

Or they could just be dirt stains.

The local soil was a tenacious pigment.

Officer Kelling took the next turn slowly, so as not to disturb her sleeping passenger. They had left the highway behind, now, and the lights of the town were now visible on the horizon. It wouldn’t be long after reaching town proper that they’d reach Kingsman’s. As she drove, Kelling glanced sidelong at Arthur’s slumped form. She wondered if she should tell Lance about this. Arthur wasn’t a minor anymore, but the man was his only guardian, and he had a right to know if his ~~son~~ nephew (she always did that) was having trouble again.

But….maybe that was a conversation Arthur should start on his own? It wasn’t her place to play therapist, and Arthur had never reacted well to that in the past. Kelling checked her mirrors and changed lanes, following the road as it turned towards the town and shrank to one lane on either side. She would just make sure he got home safely. Yeah.

Lance could take things from there.

…….

The apartment was dark, as was the garage below it, as the patrol car pulled into the lot. Officer Kelling muttered something frustrated under her breath. Of course…she’d forgotten it was a Thursday. Lance would be at Abby’s Alehouse practically all night. It was almost a tradition of his, when his ~~son~~ nephew (she did it again) was out of town.

Putting her car in park, Kelling turned off the engine, and looked over at her passenger. Arthur was still fast asleep, his cheek pressed against the edge of the seat. He was probably exhausted enough that, if she woke him up and simply walked him inside, he’d go right to bed, with no chance to do anything reckless. But ‘probably’ was no guarantee, and there was a fine line between ‘professional distance’ and being coldhearted.

With her mind made up, Officer Kelling unbuckled her seatbelt and popped open her door. The interior lights turned on, and the vehicle chimed quietly to remind her that the door was open, but Arthur didn’t stir. Closing her own door. Kelling moved around the front of her patrol car and quietly opened the passenger side. Reaching across Arthur, she unclicked his seatbelt, and eased it back into its holster.

“We’re here…” Kelling placed a careful hand on Arthur’s shoulder, and gently tried to rouse him. “ _Kind_ , you’re home.” Arthur made a tired, unhappy sound as he cracked his eyes open, and looked up at the woman miserably. He thought you were supposed to feel better after sleeping. Every part of his body felt stiff and sore and he didn’t want to move in case it hurt more but it already hurt just sitting still. Kelling patted his shoulder and reached across to grab his opposite, tugging it gently out of the seat.

“Come on, _Kind_ ,” She urged. “The faster we get you inside, the faster you can get back to sleep.” Grudgingly, Arthur swung his legs out of the car and slid out, leaning heavily on the woman’s offered arm when his legs began to shake. His feet hurt from the sudden call to activity, and throbbed with every step. Arthur eyed the apartment on the second floor with a pained grimace, and Kelling nudged the passenger door shut with her foot.

Carefully, she helped Arthur shuffle across the lot and to the staircase that climbed the side of the building. She helped him limp up each step, and when they reached the apartment door, she picked up the spare key from the roots of the decorative plant off to the side, as she had done several times before. Kelling unlocked the door and let it swing open, and quietly waved Arthur inside.

The boy hesitated, though…..staring into the darkened apartment as if he’d been asked to face the lion’s den. He looked at Kelling, eyes wide, as if looking for confirmation that it was safe. The woman waved her hand towards the apartment once more. It was alright - Lance wasn’t home tonight. Arthur didn’t have to confront him now. Some of the tension left Arthur’s posture at this, but his first steps across the threshold were still slow and hesitant.

He acted almost as if he were somewhere unfamiliar…

……….

Nah. The poor boy was surely tired and in pain. That would make anyone act out of sorts.

Officer Kelling quietly replaced the spare key, and followed Arthur inside. When the front door closed, the boy stopped and turned to look back at her curiously, but Kelling nudged him forward again.

“Keep going, to the living room.” She ordered, keeping her voice low. “Go sit yourself down, and get those feet up - on the coffee table, if you have to. I’ll take any ire from your uncle.” She promised. Arthur looked at her strangely, but quietly obeyed, and once she’d seen the boy’s silhouette ease down onto the couch in the room down the hall (and, after some hesitation, lift up his feet onto the wooden table) she headed for the bathroom.

Her memories of poker night at Kingsman’s did not fail her, and Kelling quickly found the first aid kit stored beneath the sink. Briefly, she turned on the light and popped the case open to take stock of its contents. She’d have to replace a few things for Lance, but he’d probably appreciate what they were being used for in the first place. Turning the light back off (it wasn’t her electricity bill on the line, but Lance kept the entire department’s fleet running) she made for the living room, and turned on one of the table side lamps.

Arthur, half-asleep and snuggled in the cushions, squeezed his eyes shut at the sudden intrusion of light and made a disgruntled whining sound.

“Don’t drift off on me yet, _Kind_.” Kelling seated herself on the table beside Arthur’s feet and settled the first aid kit on her lap. “We’ve got to take care of those scratches before you catch something.”

“Mmrrphrdrrr…” Arthur mumbled something incoherent and closed his eyes again, not paying attention as Kelling opened a small bottle and daubed some strange liquid onto a piece of cotton. He was tired and this couch was soft, he was going to sleep….

…..!

“Ow!” Arthur’s eyes shot open and he cried out in surprise as one of the cuts along his full arm began to seriously sting. He jerked back from Kelling, eyes wide and betrayed, and the woman had to fight the urge to roll her eyes.

“Would you prefer an infection?” She asked flatly. Arthur swallowed. That word didn’t sound good. Was it worse than whatever stinging stuff she’d just painted on him? She made it sound like it was. “It only stings for a minute, _Kind_. Give me your arm.” Slowly and hesitantly, Arthur held out his full arm until Kelling could reach it again.

This time, he watched her put more of that strange liquid on the cotton, and then rub it against one of the scratches on his arm. It hurt - a lot - and the young man scrunched up his nose in discomfort.

But Kelling was right, and after a few seconds, the pain faded away. He then watched her pull something flat out of the first aid kit, peel away paper sides, and stretch it over the scratch. The pain lessened just a little bit, and Arthur forced himself to relax. Kelling noticed this shift, and smiled.

“There we go, _Kind_. Just a few (dozen) more, and we’ll be done, alright?”


	26. At Home

Officer Kelling did not leave until nearly four in the morning.

Once the dark stains on Arthur’s clothing had been proven to be bloodstains and not just ground in dirt, she’d given up any thoughts of leaving the boy alone that night, and had stripped him of the bloody garments. The boy sat shivering on the couch in just his boxers, not even protesting the sting of the alcohol this time, while Kelling cleaned and treated the painful scratches there.

One or two looked suspiciously like shallow stab wounds, but even when pressed, Arthur refused to say he’d been attacked.

Kelling only let herself relax when all of the wounds had been treated, and Arthur had changed into clean clothes. He’d shuffled around the hallway, at first, as if he’d forgotten which room was his…and even once he’d picked the right door, he’d taken a while to change. Kelling had been about to get up and knock before the boy came out again, wearing long purple sweatpants and a shirt that was too large to be his. Or his uncle’s, for that matter.

She thought about the boy who’d gone missing last year, and kept her mouth shut.

“There we go, _kind_. That’s step one.” The woman laid her hands on Arthur’s shoulders and pushed him head of her - but gently, because his feet were still sore and aching, and he limped with every step. “Step two: dinner.” Or….breakfast, really, since it was closer to 3am, now. Lance must have not expected his nephew back for a while longer, to be staying out this late.

She pushed him down into the nearest chair, and Arthur probably curled into a ball. His feet touched the crossbars between the legs and he hissed, and lowered them back to the floor. Kelling cast him a sympathetic glance, but continued on to the refrigerator, and opened the door. The woman cringed at the sight of empty shelves and scarce options, and made a mental note to scold Lance about letting his cupboards go bare. That just wasn’t healthy - especially for a working man.

After wrestling with herself for a few moments, Kelling grabbed a half-filled tub of tuna, some butter, and a few slices of bread and cheese. Arthur watched her curiously as she dropped these on the counter and began rifling through the cabinets and drawers to find a frying pan, which she then dropped onto the stove and turned the heat to ‘med’. Left at the table, he looked around the dark room, lit only by the propane flame and a small hood light over the stove.

The kitchen was small, but felt….cozy. The wallpaper was an old mustard yellow that might have once been glaring, but time and wear had lessened it to a softer shade. The creaking linoleum of the floor was scuffed from many instances of chairs and stools being dragged across them, and the edges of the counter were dented in places where said chairs had hit just a little too hard. A few pictures were scattered around the walls - most were of him, smiling, and younger, and a short, intimidating man who looked just like him.

Arthur wondered if this was the ‘Lance’ those magazines on the coffee table had been mailed to.

The young man idly shifted his feet, carefully adjusting them to keep the pressure off the blisters that had formed along the soles. He didn’t know this woman, but she really knew her way around the place. Did she live here? Oh, he must have forgotten her. The blond’s shoulders drooped. Well, now he just felt terrible. How could he forget someone so nice?

“Eat up, _kind_.” A plate was suddenly set down in front of him, and Arthur started. The tuna melt wafted a delicious steam up into the air, and the boy felt his stomach growl. “You look like you haven’t eaten in weeks.” Kelling gave him a scolding look that made Arthur feel guilty, and he didn’t know why. “And knowing you, maybe you haven’t.” Oh? She made that sound bad…

“M’sorry…” The words spilled out of his mouth almost on reflex, and Arthur wasn’t sure why they made the nice lady look so sad. He reached for the sandwich, knowing it would fill the void in his stomach, and Kelling pulled up the other chair at the table, having nothing herself as she watched Arthur eat. It was a little unnerving.

But everything she had done so far had been for his benefit…getting him home, treating his wounds, giving him food, etc….so Arthur tried not to hold it against her.

When he’d finished, Kelling had taken his plate, and dropped it into the sink. Then, she’d turned back to him, and helped him limp back into the living room, where the carpeting was much easier on his aching feet. Kelling helped him settle on the couch again - this time complete with a throw blanket taken from one of the armchairs. It was soft and warm and oh-so comfortable, but before Arthur could close his eyes, Kelling was nudging him again. The woman pressed two small pills into the boy’s hand, along with a small glass of water.

“Take these.” She ordered. “They’ll help you sleep tonight.” The woman had been nothing but kind to him so far, so Arthur obediently swallowed the pills and drank the water. Kelling took the glass back, and Arthur settled back down on the couch, closing his eyes and letting out a tired sigh. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and the blanket was tugged up just a little further. 

“Your uncle will be home soon, _kind_.” He heard the woman promise as he drifted off to sleep. “I’ll let him know you’re alright…”

……….

The door creaked open slowly, and Lance Kingsman tiptoed across the threshold.

He just as quietly closed the door, taking care to slide off his boots and leave his keys on their appointed hook, before shuffling down the hall, and pausing in the living room. For several minutes, he simply stared at the sleeping form on his couch. He almost hadn’t believed Kelling when she’d called and told him that she’d picked up Arthur, but there he was, sleeping deeper than Lance had seen in a long time.

The man shook his head, and shuffled over to the couch. He placed one hand on his nephew’s shoulder, but Arthur did not stir, and Lance withdrew his hand. He was downright worried about Arthur - being found on the side of the road, with no sign of Vivi or Lewis? With no call home or explanation? - but his nephew had been calm enough when Kelling spoke with him, and had fallen asleep without much trouble.

…….

He could get an explanation in the morning, Lance decided. The man gave his nephew’s hair a fond ruffle (and again, Arthur didn’t even stir) and shuffled towards his own room. He had a hangover to start sleeping off…


End file.
